Ivan Hill

Ivan Hill is a well recognized name in the art circles of Dunedin. He has gained a huge reputation and following as a New Zealand naive artist and has held exhibitions through out the country dating back to 1980.

His preferred medium is oil on primed canvas, but he has also had numerous successful works completed in coloured pencil. Characteristics of his works include a bright use of colour, thickly applied paint and wonderfully character-filled scenes with larger than life figures of his peers and/or topical public figures.

His works are represented in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Fighter Pilots Museum in Wanaka, the Mosgiel Public Library and Te Papa - Museum on New Zealand, Wellington.

In May 2008 (the year of his 75th birthday) Ivan held a highly successful show - Witches of the Leith Valley, at Gallery De Novo. This show was a huge success with most works selling on opening night, and a local arts reviewer commented in the Otago Daily Times…. "This may be the artist's finest single collection of works. If not, it is certainly one of his best".

Mermaids – is Ivan’s latest body of work.  This show is made up of oil paintings and pencil drawings and depicts Ralph Hotere as a pirate, Jeffery Harris, as his first mate, as well as mermaids and various mysterious sea creatures in amusing under-the-sea adventures.  During the exhibition the gallery will be showing several televised segments and films made on Ivan Hill.