Angus Collis

Born in Masterton in 1976 - ANGUS COLLIS exhibits nationally in New Zealand and internationally.

He has works in several private collections. Angus’s work has spanned more than two decades starting after art school at Elam and then Otago Polytechnic with the inception of the Cite Studios in Auckland, an artist collective, in the early 2000’s. In 2007 he moved to Spain where he continued his practice for 11 yrs before moving back to the Bay of Plenty in 2018.

Often the paintings are scrubbed back and blurred or overprinted with material blotted onto the canvas or paper to transfer textures and patterns. These techniques are used within the traditional concerns of light, colour,composition, and perspective. His paintings can be read on several levels. Through the beauty of his colour and image he lets you see the world according to his perspective, and yet…
“Dysphoria ( a general feeling of unease). This applies particularly well to Angus’s body of paintings, all of which seem unsettling, unreal impressions of place. Small towns, with reference to his childhood haunts in the Bay of plenty are painted in a semi naive style, bright and clean to be anything other than a memory trace. The empty landscapes with their strident perspectives seem as alien as those of Hopper and De Chirico. The woods, also studied in perspective, seem too regimented, too neat”. ( From a review by James Dignan Otago Daily Times)