Shannon Novak

Shannon Novak Extended Play, 2019

High impact plexiglass, acrylic, PVC, transparent vinyl, and solar light, 1200 x 1200 x 1400 mm.

Extended Play explores the limits of site, or how it might extend beyond a designated and/or expected path. It is made up of a central work and satellite works. The central work is located on the walk, a small structure that juts out of the ground like the tip of an iceberg. The satellite works appear in locations outside the walk into and beyond the Waiheke community using transparent vinyl to augment space into colour-rich and interactive environments. Although the works are geographically spread, they are all connected through the same visual language, just as we are all connected through our own biological network.

Shannon Novak

Born New Plymouth. Lives and works in Auckland.

New Zealand artist Shannon Novak works with sound and explores contemporary gay issues. He creates compositions for objects, locations, and people much as musicians might compose for/ about places, persons, or experiences with emotional resonance for them. Initially trained as a pianist, his practice encompasses painting, sculpture, and installation. He also examines the ways in which the plurality and tensions of gay desire muddy and morph geometrical purity and idealism.

Novak’s installations and exhibitions have been seen in national and international institutions, festivals, and public spaces, including the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki; Dunedin Public Art Gallery; McKinney Avenue Contemporary (Dallas, Texas); Ningbo Museum of Art (Ningbo, China); and Georgia Museum of Art (Athens, Georgia).

Novak graduated in 2001 with a Bachelor of Applied Information Systems from the Western Institute of Technology in New Plymouth and gained a Master of Education (Hons) from Massey University, Palmerston North in 2009. He then graduated MFA (Hons) from the University of Auckland in 2014. Novak has completed a number of artist residencies including a residency at Altes Spital (Solothurn, Switzerland) in 2018, and has been engaged in public commissions in Auckland, New Plymouth and Denver, Colarado.

Follow Shannon on instagram @shannon_novak_