Axis Gallery is pleased to present GMT +13, a solo exhibition of all new color photographs by Nick Shepard. GMT +13 consists of images created while Shepard traveled throughout Aotearoa New Zealand early this year.
Aotearoa (“Land of the Long White Cloud” in te reo Māori) New Zealand is known for its “green” reputation and striking landscapes, especially those that have been set aside as National Parks. Those landscapes have been made famous by The Lord of the Rings and many other projects that have been filmed there.
Shepard’s prints highlight the ways in which the land has been shaped by years of human intervention. First Māori (maw-ree) and then English settlers have transformed the islands. Where there were once native Kauri forests there are now scenic pasturelands devoted the country’s famous sheep and cows.
Despite its progressive political reputation, Aotearoa New Zealand is currently wrestling with divisive American-style politics as the current right-wing government enacts major changes on topics ranging from the environment to Māori rights. This is not simply the primordial land of common imagination.
In his previous shows Shepard has used a variety of approaches to explore how photographic images are constructed and consumed. For many of us, photography is a way to escape to another place via our phones, or to nostalgically look back on a trip we took. Far from a comprehensive view of Aotearoa New Zealand, GMT +13 is part exhibit, part public work in progress that demonstrates Shepard’s struggle to make sense of the thousands of images he created, and more generally, of a place that feels so familiar and so unfamiliar all at once. Shepard’s exhibit includes several large-scale prints that invite viewers to all but step into the natural scenery, as well as small prints that pull back to look at wider vistas.
GMT +13 will be on view from July 5–28, 2024, with a reception with the artist on Saturday, July 20 starting at 5pm. Due to a scheduling conflict, Shepard will not be able to attend Second Saturday.
About the Artist
Nick Shepard has shown at Axis since 2017, and this is his fifth solo show in the Main Gallery. In addition to Axis, his work has appeared at TGTG, the Crocker Art Museum, Pence Gallery, Holland Project, the Wassaic Project, Disjecta Contemporary Art Center, and the Center for Photography at Woodstock. Shepard is based in Sacramento, where he is an Associate Professor of Photography at Sacramento State University. Shepard received his MFA from the School of Visual Arts, and his BA in Studio Art and Art History from Carleton College