There are not many retailers’ trade catalogues you’d want to add to one’s library. Three that make the grade are the excellently designed and printed publications issued from 2006 by Auckland’s Sanderson 
Contemporary Art. The latest of these gives brief profiles on 21 artists represented by the crisp Parnell gallery. The format includes brief bios, four or five colour illustrations of works, a small portrait of each artist and, in some cases, a photo of their working environment. A single page of text, variously written by three authors, gives a clear statement about the artist’s aims and techniques. Obviously, this writing is supportive, but there is no puffery. The book gives potential clients of the gallery the best possible look at its artists, short of a full exhibition.
The artists range from the deceased (Ted Dutch) through the elderly (Alan Pearson) to the recently emerged (Clare Kim, Liam Gerrard), and include painters, sculptors, graphic artists and photographers. Some are well-known, others will become better-known thanks to this book. Most live in New Zealand, but some, such as Will Handley (London), reside overseas. Styles range from abstraction (Shintaro Nakahara) to obsessively detailed “magic realism” (Candi Dentice).
Every reader will have personal favourites (after all, that’s what the book is designed to facilitate). For me, the standouts include the replications in marble of everyday objects by Martin Selman; Gina Jones’s magical glass and Perspex lightboxes and Yoshiko Nakahara’s incredibly detailed ink drawings. Then there are Ray Haydon’s seemingly impossible twisted wood and steel sculptures, challenged in the perfection stakes by the frozen motion of Ben Foster’s shining buffed-aluminium pieces.
Manipulated digital photography, currently hot but hard to do well, is done exceedingly well by PJ Paterson. His infinite vistas of rows of bikes and wrecked cars are mesmerising. The conceptual side, so important these days but avoided by many art dealers, is covered by the work of Josephine Cachemaille and Will Handley.
Notwithstanding tough economic times, the better dealer galleries are continuing to publish high-quality material in support of their artists. This is not junk mail; it is a great service to the public and a major contribution to New Zealand art history. Armed with information about artists, the new entrant into the sometimes rarefied contemporary gallery scene is put at ease. Sanderson’s is setting a very high standard in this area.
THE ARTISTS: 21 PRACTITIONERS IN NEW ZEALAND CONTEMPORARY ART c2011-2013, by Arron Santry, Kylie Sanderson and Tamara Darragh (Beatnik, $49.99).
Warwick Brown is author of Seen This Century: 100 Contemporary New Zealand Artists – A Collector’s Guide.