The term ‘outsider art’ is a contested term – one that has commonly been used to describe anything outside the art world’s mainstream institutions.

It is also a term used to describe artworks produced by people who have not had a formal artistic education. Aboriginal artists working in remote Australian communities have sometimes been described in this way, as have the artists Vincent van Gogh and Frida Kahlo.

‘Outsider’ artist Andrew Blythe has been supported by the Toi Ora Live Art Trust, a community arts centre providing studio space for people who have experienced mental illness.

A turbulent adolescence in the 1970s saw Blythe occasionally living rough on the streets of Auckland – during which time he painted, drew and wrote poetry as an expression of his experience.

Whether through their ‘all-over’ colour combinations or their rhythms of short repeated words and gestural marks, the eye is led in search of visual patterns and systems. Blythe’s paintings might be seen as an attempt to create stability and order through repetition and pattern.

The artist himself describes his work as being about “energy flows and rhythms”, that he strives to “achieve harmony”, and that he wants his painting to be “pure, with no interference”.

We are grateful to be working alongside 
Toi Ora toiora.org.nz in presenting Andrew Blythe’s seventh solo exhibition at Tim Melville. The exhibition will be presented in the Office Gallery.