About ArtExplore

Beginnings

ArtExplore has developed from our long time love and experience of art and having developed a personal collection of contemporary art. We are passionate about the excellent Aotearoa/New Zealand contemporary art that has been and continues to be created. We want to share our love of art with others and help grow this art both locally and internationally.  

Vision

We envisage working in partnership with the existing art community as well as independently to create opportunities for the tourist sector, general public, those with a strong interest in art, as well as people thinking about or new to collecting. The opportunities we create will foster excitement for art and artists as a central meaningful part of our culture, and to transform this into ongoing purchasing/collecting.

Environmental Sustainability

We have built our lives around practices to lessen our carbon foot print and to contribute to sustainability. We are carrying this into ArtExplore. We have actively sought a printer with a credible record for safe ecological practices: Soar Printing: www.soarprint.co.nz We will reduce, reuse and recycle wherever possible. We will use public transport and will link the people using the services of ArtExplore to the public transport facilities of the city.

Committment to Community

Individually we have long contributed to the development of a just society with activities in the peace, environmental and antiracism movements. For years we have contributed to Oxfam www.oxfam.org.nz and Amnesty international www.amnesty.org.nz . As ArtExplore we will find our way to support the development of new, emerging artists through funding events, residencies etc.

 Economic development

Caril and Brian see this as an enjoyable way to earn income, build a business, support their interest in art and significantly increase the number of people understanding and collecting contemporary fine art both locally and internationally.  As the business grows there will be both employment created within the business (for the younger generation) as well as secondary employment through networking businesses providing required services such as printing, IT, venues and refreshments. 

Introducing your hosts Brian Latimer and Caril Cowan:

Because of our abiding passion for art, we have been attending art functions, visiting galleries in Auckland, New Zealand and internationally, acquiring art at auctions and galleries for years. We love living with, looking at, being stimulated by and discussing contemporary art. We are now sharing our art knowledge and experience in the public arena with you. 

Brian:

There is a long tradition of art in my family. Both my grandfather (also a university graduate) and father were talented artists. My father was offered a scholarship to art school but due his circumstances during The Depression could not take it up. However he maintained actively drawing, painting and some bronze casting all his life (as well as being a brilliant engineer). My Aunty too in her later years became a very committed artist. And my cousin was a talented artist – I was surrounded! I greatly admired their ‘just doing art’.

I almost inevitably fell into drawing, other small art projects (most as ‘idea’ – a nascent ‘post modernist’ in the making!) and developed an enduring passion for photograpy. (Reminising now I always think I could have made a rather good, second rate artist). Along the way I was attracted to the History of Art and majored in this, along with philosophy during my undergraduate studies. Art has always facinated me, both from an aesthetic perspective (I have a rather indulgent eye for colour and form) but also from a philosophic/cultural perspective of content and meaning. I feel very priveleged to have grown up in an era of so much change in society, values, science, business, philosophy and of course art, all of which has produced such a vast outpouring of innovation and challenges to tradition. I enjoy immensely, particularly with art, wading through this endless flicking cavern of ambiguity, effervescence, cyclic rollercoasters of both fashion and serious endeavour - imagining I am near the cutting edge of knowledge but confounded the very next day by yet another door opening into the unknown.

My career has been in marketing and international business which has given me a whole range of valuable skills and experience (including formally evaluating the art ‘market’  from a 'value and opportunity' perspective) which I enjoy and am still pursuing but at a quieter pace. I am really excited about the challenge of ArtExplore and through this sharing with you my experiences of living with, collecting and appreciation of art.

Caril:

My childhood background was the culturally limited one of a fundamentalist religion. As a teenager and part of the baby boomer generation I joined the societal rebellion. Our grandparents and parents were battered by two world wars and the great depression and therefore sought safety in tradition and materialism. The baby boomer generation rebellion was in in part a quest for a better society where another world war would be an impossibility. In this era of tumultuous change I was exposed to and immediately attracted to contemporary art, visual, performing, literature, cinema etc. This art provided a reflection on life, questioning, challenging, asking the unspeakable questions, searching for impossible solutions, as we tried to create meaningful lives and a society better for us ordinary people. This artistic expression stimulated me then and continues to do so now. One of my favourite things is attending art galleries, both public and private, to stand before a piece of art and contemplate it. I feel so privileged to have our own collection where I can see the same art over and over, revisiting and seeing again and again the same work, gaining more and more from it. I am writing some of my experiences in our Blog.

As so many young women of my genreation I was encouraged to be a nurse therefore my career has been in health. In the second part of my career I moved completely over to mental health. I have a special professional interest in how we as society and the mental health services support people whose lives are severely and adversly affected by the experiences we call mental illness. I am the Programme Coordinator for the mental health support work programmes at AUT University, a senior trainee in psychodrama, and have a small private practice providing professional supervision for mental health support workers as well as counselling services, both individual and group..

My journey of art has been so enhanced with Brian as my life partner. As we both move to change our lifestyle and income earning activites, I am delighted to be embracing this project with him. The vechicle of ArtExplore to enhance our and your experience of art and life is wildly exciting. I look forward to meeting you on the Walks of Art and other future events