13/05/2026
Art+Object is pleased to announce the consignment of Shane Cotton’s 1997 painting Middle North. One of the key works from the artist’s landmark ‘Square Style’ exhibition at Mori Gallery in Sydney, the painting is the most significant by the artist to appear at auction since Kaua E Raweke I Te Manu (1997), which sold for a record price ($615 570) at Art+Object in November 2021, and which also featured in the ‘Square Style’ exhibition. Painted predominantly in worn out sepia and ochre tones, with flashes of deep forest green, Middle North synthesizes Māori carving and Ngāpuhi histories with pakeha-derived imagery including stencilled letters, flags, alarm clock numerals and compartmentalized landscapes. Vertical in structure, one tends to ‘read’ Middle North as much as look at it, the eye naturally scanning from top to bottom, left to right, like the page of a book, which the vertical format of the painting recalls. In its complex construction of text and image, Middle North is emphatically both of yesterday and today, a contemporary history painting for the eye and mind.
For any enquiries about this piece or the upcoming auction of Important Paintings & Contemporary Art
Contact:
Ben Plumbly
Director of Art
[email protected]
021 222 8183
🔨📆Live Auction : Thursday 6 August, 2026
Illustrated:
Shane Cotton
Middle North
oil on canvas
signed and dated 1997
Exhibited: ‘Shane Cotton: Square Style’, Mori Gallery, Sydney, September – October 1997.
Provenance: Private collection Sydney. Acquired from Mori Gallery, September 24 1997.
1829 x 1524mm
$250 000 - $400 000
nzart
