Two Years | One Building, a Studio Show: Isabella Loudon

What if an artist was given free rein to infiltrate a building, extending beyond their studio space to fill it with their own sculptural work? From 8-10 December sculptor Isabella Loudon is opening up the building she has been working in for the last two years, and has now taken over. This is a rare chance to see a site-specific multi-roomed installation before the building is demolished in 2024.

Isabella Loudon is a 2016 Fine Arts graduate of Massey University, Wellington and since that time she has been making a name for herself as one of Aotearoa’s most interesting sculptors. Her work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions, including ‘Labyrinth’ at the Dowse Art Museum in 2018, a sculptural drawing made from concrete-covered twine; the group exhibition - ‘The Tomorrow People’ in 2017 at the Adam Art Gallery Te Pataka Toi and a large installation Platforms in the group exhibition ‘Unravelled’ in 2019 at City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi. Her primary medium at that time was concrete but over the last two years she has branched out into plaster, copper and discarded rubber inner tubes from cars, trucks, tractors and bikes. For Loudon, the space a work occupies is often integral to how it is read, she makes the comparison to how her drawings occupy the space of a page – ‘chaotic with one thing talking to another’. She likes to keep things tidy and organised in the studio but the instinctive way she works leads to a certain kind of chaos.

WHAT TO EXPECT: Loudon’s studio is located in Marton, approximately 30 minutes from Whanganui. Visitors will be able to view the spaces upstairs and downstairs. Works occupy the walls, floors and the ceiling. The artist and gallery staff will be present over the three days.
ARTIST TALK: Isabella will be in the space for the duration of the three days but will give an artist talk in conversation with a member of the Gallery’s curatorial team on Saturday and Sunday 11.15am and 2.15pm.
WHEN: Friday 8, Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 December from 11am – 4pm
WHERE: 214 Broadway, Marton
TRANSPORT: Visitors are free to make their own way to Marton or the Sarjeant is offering a minivan shuttle service on Saturday and Sunday for $10 return. If you would like to book the shuttle service please click here.

Note: no wheelchair access to the upstairs rooms.