Katharina Grosse
Billboard Project
9 April - 30th April 2001
Katharina Grosse arrived in New Zealand from Germany in late February. Since then she has spent six weeks as Artist in Residence at Elam School of Fine Art (University of Auckland) working towards her exhibition at George Fraser Gallery 4-21 April. To coincide , this weekend she will begin work on possibly the largest painting ever completed in New Zealand - an enormous billboard work measuring 20 x 6 metres at Upper Queen St.
Grosse is well known in Europe for her sprayed wall paintings with upcoming exhibitions scheduled in Milan and Vienna as well as Sydney and Korea. Although often indoor works, these are not restricted purely to gallery spaces - corridors and stairwells and other through spaces are used to constrain and direct the viewer both physically and visually through the work.
The Auckland project will be her first large-scale outdoor work. Scaffolding has been erected this week and the huge billboard enlarged. Currently it is shrouded in a protective plastic wrap, but from 9am Saturday the artist will begin.
Media Release, 2001