Biography
Allen Maddox
b.1948 in Liverpool, England
d. 2000 in Napier, New Zealand
Allen Maddox is remembered as being one of New Zealand’s finest exponents of abstract expressionism. His work, spanning over three decades, investigates the tensions between structure and gesture, primarily utilising the motifs of grids and crosses.
‘The grid’ he says, he adopted as a ‘compositional device to express myself’. There seems to be a nice little paradox buried in that; grids being the epitome of order and intellectual arrangement and expressionism being, well, something else entirely.” (Hamish Keith, Allen Maddox, exhibition catalogue, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, 1996.)
The grids echo the canvas shape while the crosses both negate the grid and fill it in. Variations on these arrangements allowed Maddox to experiment with colour and brushstroke, enlivening the canvas with work that speaks about the spontaneous act of painting as well as aesthetic judgement and consideration.
Allen Maddox was born in Liverpool, England in 1948. He moved to New Zealand in 1963 and passed away in Napier, in 2000.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2002 Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2000 Allen Maddox: A Tribute, Works from Wellington Collections, City Gallery Wellington
Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1999 Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1998 Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1997 Canterbury Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand
1996 Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1994 Janne Land Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1993 Centre for Contemporary Art, Hamilton, New Zealand
Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1992 Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1991 Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1990 Gregory Flint Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1989 Allen Maddox: A Selection of Works on Paper, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1988 Southern Cross Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
1987 Hawkes Bay Art Gallery and Museum, Napier, New Zealand
1986 Maddox at Muka, Muka Studio, Auckland, New Zealand
1985 Peter McCleavey Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
New Paintings and Works on Paper, Denis Cohn Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1984 Denis Cohn Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1983 Peter McCleavey Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
Denis Cohn Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1982 Denis Cohn Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1981 Denis Cohn Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1980 Allen Maddox: A Survey 1975 -1980, Denis Cohn Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1979 Denis Cohn Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1978 Peter Webb Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Barry Lett Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Peter McCleavey Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
1977 New Works on Paper, Peter Webb Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Peter McCleavey Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
Denis Cohn Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1976 Peter Webb Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1975 Bett/Duncan Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
1974 Elva Bett Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
1973 Collage Paintings, Bett/Duncan Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
Selected Group Exhibitions
2004-05 Militant Artists Reunion. Three Neo-Expressionist Painters. Tony Fomison, Philip Clairmont and Allen Maddox,, Hawkes Bay Exhibition Centre, Hastings
2001 Catalogue Exhibition, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland
1998 Marshal Seifert Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand, with Jeffery Harris
1997 Spring Ten Year Catalogue Exhibition, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1996 20th Century New Zealand Art, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Spring Catalogue Exhibition, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1995 Works on Paper, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1991-92 Christmas Show, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1991 Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Black and White Show, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1989 Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1988 Ruth Watson and Allen Maddox, Southern Cross Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
Jeffrey Harris: Aquatints / Allen Maddox: Paintings, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1987 Allen Maddox and Tony Lane: Lithographs and Paintings, Southern Cross Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
1983 Aspects of Recent New Zealand Art: the grid, lattice and network, Auckland, Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1982 The Great Deassession Exhibition, Govett-Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand
1981 Permanent Collection Exhibition, Govett-Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand
Permanent Collection Exhibition, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1980 Hangings: New Zealand Paintings form the 70’s from the Permanent Collection, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1979 Recent Acquisitions, Auckland, Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1977 Group Exhibition, Peter McCleavey Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
Young Contemporaries, Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand
1975 3 Wellington Painters: Allen Maddox, Tony Lane, and Robert McLeod, Peter McCleavey Gallery, Wellington
Selected Publications
100 New Zealand Paintings, Warwick Brown, Godwit Publishing, 1995
Allen Maddox, Hamish Keith, Gow Langsford Gallery,1996
A Concise History of New Zealand Paintings, Michael Dunn, David Bateman, Craftsman House, 1991
Contemporary New Zealand Art 3, Elizabeth Caughey & John Gow, David Bateman, 2002
Forty Modern New Zealand Paintings, Francis Pound, Penguin Books, Auckland, New Zealand, 1985
The Grid, Lattice and Network: Aspects of Recent New Zealand Art, Andrew Bogle, Auckland Art Gallery, 1983
New Zealand Art. A Modern Perspective, Elva Bett, Reed Methuen, 1986
New Zealand Painting. A Concise History, Michael Dunn, Auckland University Press, 2003
Selected Public and Private Collections
BNZ, Wellington, New Zealand
Fletcher Challenge, Auckland, New Zealand
Chartwell Collection, Auckland, New Zealand
James Wallace Collection, Auckland, New Zealand
Russell McVeigh McKenzie Bartlett & Co, Auckland, New Zealand
Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand
Colenso, Auckland, New Zealand
Museum of New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand
Govett Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand
Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui, New Zealand
Bishop Suter Gallery, Nelson, New Zealand
Obituaries
Richard McWhannell, Allen Maddox 1848 - 2000, Art New Zealand, No. 97 / Summer 2000 / 2001, p 44