Biography
Dick Frizzell
b. 1943 Auckland, New Zealand
Dick Frizzell has often slipped through the nets of traditional critical and curatorial definition and the success of his artistic career is, in part, due to the number of dramatic diversions he has made between different art styles and genres. Before moving into visual arts Frizzell worked in advertising. He has worked as an animator, commercial artist and illustrator and has no qualms about blurring the categories between his commercial work and art. His paintings are often a pastiche of images drawing on modern art and graphic design.
His work has always been characterised by a highly skilled handling of paint and an endlessly inventive range of subject matter and styles: faux-naive New Zealand landscapes, figurative still-life, comic book characters and witty parodies of modernist abstraction. His taste is conveniently broad and he has a penchant for fondly remembered and well-worn clichés. His work also portrays a sense of exuberance, ironic humour and baby-boomer nostalgia. An anti-traditionalist, Frizzell often makes a deliberate effort to mix up the categories of high and low art - poking fun at the intellectualisation of 'high art' and the existential angst of much New Zealand painting in the art culture of his youth.
Although primarily a painter, Frizzell also produces an extensive range of works on paper including lithographs and screen prints.
Education
1964 Ilam Art School, Canterbury, New Zealand,
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2004 The Pumpkin is a Red Herring, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland
2003 Please keep us safe while we sleep by the fire, Hawkes Bay Art Museum
2002 Pleased to remember, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
What is this, Gow Langsford Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Janne Land Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand.
2001 Welcome to Sunny Hawkes Bay, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
2000 Home Truths, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand.
1999 Exhibition of Paintings, Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand.
1998 Patched Up, Andrew Jensen Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand.
What I Yam - the Junk Mail Narratives, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, NZ.
1997 Dick Frizzell, Portrait of a Serious Artiste, City Gallery Wellington, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Vanity Vanity, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, Nhew Zealand.
Popova to Remuera, John Leech Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
Summer Muster, Andrew Jensen Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand.
Construction from Freedom, Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Lost and Found, Lesley Kriesler Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand.
1996 Line and Point, Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Lesley Kriesler Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand.
Ambitious Objects, Andrew Jensen Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand.
1995 P.O.P. Past on Paper, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand.
Hoi Te Toi Te, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
1994 No Figure Necessary, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
European Descendant, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand.
1993 Hook, Line and Sinker, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand.
The Agua Amarga Suite, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
Selected Hook, Line and Sinker works, Lesley Kriesler Gallery, New Plymouth, NZ.
1992 South Island Landscapes, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
South Island Landscapes, Exhibited at the Carnegie Centre, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Tiki, Works on Paper at Salamander Gallery Art Centre, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Tiki, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
1991 What’s the Big Idea?, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand.
South Island Landscapes, CSA Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand.
1990 Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
Big Paintings, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
Images for Lovers, Works on Paper Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
1989 Lithographs, Muka Studio and Regent Hote, Auckland, New Zealand.l
Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
Janne Land Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand.
1987 Janne Land Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand.
Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
1986 Heads On, Denis Cohn Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
1985 Eh! Easy, Hard, Impossible, Carnegie Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Works on Paper, Red Metro Gallery,
Dick at DKD, DKD Cafe Exhibition, Auckland, New Zealand.
Escape From Salvation Part III, Installation at Last and First Cafe, Auckland, NZ.
1984 Escape From Salvation, RKS Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
Still Lives, Denis Cohn Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
Headlines, RKS Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
1983 Give and Take, Last and First Cafe, Auckland, New Zealand.
Spring Show, Louise Beale Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
1982 Still Lives, , Louise Beale Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand.
1981 Everybodies Business, RKS Art, Auckland and Louise Beale Gallery, Wellington, NZ.
1980 Home is Where the Art Is, RKS Art, Auckland and Louise Beale Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand.
1979 Illustrations of America (The Dancing Chicken Show), RKS Art, Auckland, Elva Bett Gallery, Wellington and Brooke Gifford Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand.
1977 Putting it all on the Lion, Barry Lett Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
1976 A-fish-ial Exhibition, Barry Lett Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
Selected Group Shows
2006 Tiki Tour, Whangarei Art Museum, Whangarei
2004 Telecom Prospect: New Art New Zealand, City Gallery, Wellington
2001-2002 The Cartoon Show, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Auckland
2001 Screens, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
1998 Landscapes, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand (with Karl Maughan).
Spring Exhibition, Anderson Park Gallery, Timaru, New Zealand.
Dream Collectors, Museum of New Zealand, Wellington; Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
1997 Catalogue Exhibition, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
Catalogue Exhibition, Milford House Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Figurative Exhibition, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
1996 Design Love Story, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Visa Gold Award, New Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
1995 Stop Making Sense, Collaboration with Shane Cotton, Wellington City Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand.
Works on Paper, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
The Artistic Process, Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand.
A Peculiar Practice: 40 New Zealand Painters, Wellington City Art Gallery, NZ.
H2O, Dowse Art Gallery, Lower Hutt, New Zealand.
Gaugain Tribute, RKS Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
Visa Gold Award, Wellington City Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand.
Test Strip Fundraiser Show, Test Strip Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
Ho Ho Ho, Christmas Group Show, Andrew Jensen Gallery, Wellington, NZ.
1994 Landscape Survey, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
Hammond, Frizzell, Stevenson, Gregory Flint Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
The Spectrum Collection, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
Finalist, Visa Gold Award, Wellington City Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand.
Artist’s Wallpaper, The Fisher Gallery, Pakuranga, Auckland, New Zealand.
Artists Fax, CSA Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Christmas Show, FHE Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
Elvis in Geyserland, Rotorua Art Gallery, Rotorua, New Zealand.
1993 Artists Ceramics, Fisher Gallery, Pakuranga, Auckland, New Zealand.
Christmas Giving, Artspace Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
Helping the Recovery, Works on Paper Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
1992 Works on Paper Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
Big Green, Dowse Art Gallery, Lower Hutt, New Zealand.
Real Surreal, CSA Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Cleansed by the Blood of the Lamb, James Wallace Gallery, Wellington, NZ.
Artiture Show Tour, New Zealand with Russian Constructivist Tiki Rug
1991 Wild West Show, Lopdell House Gallery, Titirangi, Auckland, New Zealand.
Art and Organised Labour, Touring Show