"Peering into one of the paintings I found the smudged-over headline DO YOU HAVE A PASSION FOR NEW ZEALAND. David Kayrouz clearly has. Having lived abroad for four years, during which time he absorbed much European visual and musical culture and came to see his home country in a new light, the artist is putting his passion into his pictures".

Warwick Brown, New Zealand Art Writer and Critic


"David Kayrouz's work is not simply technically accomplished, it is packed with personal interpretations of our historical and contemporary experiences, and with literary insights. It is mysterious, full of interweaving implications, and arresting".

Kevin Ireland, New Zealand Poet and Writer

NOTES ON THE EXHIBITION "CLOSE TO HOME"

Written by Kathryn Webster

A pa sharp against the sky, a stretch of beach, a gravel road dipping past a wind-blown pohutukawa—it is such familiar scenery. We know these places. They belong to our memories, to our family photo albums. David Kayrouz's Close To Home paintings are in collective nostalgic territory and yet we cannot name that island or that cove. For they represent more than personal memory; they are asking bigger questions.

Alluding to an ongoing quest for an understanding of faith, this series more specifically addresses the issue of identity. Does defining identity depend on an element of faith? The artist asks who he is, as a New Zealander. Within that he wonders if the answer—the understanding—depends on an acknowledgement of the spiritual nature of the land. In his exploration, he has indeed found significance in the landscape. He presents the glorious notion that worship is as profound in the small white country church and the Maori meeting house as it is in the isolated Kiwi bach with its back to the bush. These sites—all so very New Zealand—are loaded with spiritual energy.

At some points in his journey of exploration, the conclusions are solid and real. He has revealed truths. At other points there is less clarity—but each is part of the whole. Each stanza has a place in the complete song. There are contemplative pauses, there are rousing choruses.

Words appear, in surprising harmony. They have an exotic, mystical quality. David finds these connections in newspapers, clips them, sticks them, paints them in. Hides them. They are playful bites of something else. Snippets of poetry, pieces of fun. They work because the paintings themselves are so loaded with scenes, views, figures and significant things that the words are just one more part of the code. The word "behind" is a clue, if you want it to be—just as the wrecked boat, the lonely seagull, the lighthouse can be—but need not be—symbolic.

David's technique demonstrates a relaxed confidence. He is sure of his gestures—the surfaces are controlled—but they have energy. It is as if, having honed his craft, he is free to genuinely enjoy the act of painting.

He paints a dramatic sky, streaked with sunset orange; it segues into a boiling sea, which crashes onto a shore bathed in morning light. Poetic juxtapositions, conflicting moods, visions of past and present and imagination, they resonate with a rigour that lies beneath their creation. He is a careful artist—a planner, a designer. But these canvases have been allowed to evolve. The results are rich collisions of emotion and reason. A viewer might relate to the poignancy of the central figure; an allegorical symbolism might ring the bell of another browsing party. Some ingredient will prove compelling, and the story comes to light. Is it his story; it is our story.