22/08/2026
Austen Deans, Orari Gorge, 1956, on display in An Taigh / The House: Held exhibition at the Aigantighe Art Gallery. (Acc. 1960.2)
Currently on display at the Aigantighe Art Gallery is an exhibition of the Gallery’s permanent collection, An Taigh / The House: Held, which celebrates 50 years of the Friends of the Aigantighe Art Gallery.
Displayed in Aigantighe House, this exhibition explores the wider story of artistic communities in South Canterbury – tracing connections between the Gallery, early Scottish settlement, and the permanent collection in relation to the activities of the Friends of the Aigantighe. An artwork on display in this exhibition is Orari Gorge, 1956, by the well know South Canterbury landscape painter, Austen Deans (1915-2011).
A steep-sided gorge cuts through the composition in Deans’ Orari Gorge, its turquoise river winds between pale, sculpted rock walls and dense native bush. Sunlight rakes across the scene at a sharp angle, throwing the left bank into cool shadow while catching the right-hand cliffs in warm gold light.
Deans builds the rock faces with confident, faceted strokes suggesting weathered, striated surfaces, while looser brushwork describes the bush above. The winding river, in vivid blue-greens, draws the eye from shadow into the sunlit distance.
Orari Gorge Station, one of Canterbury's early colonial sheep runs, reflects the region's pastoral history. Nineteenth-century station founders actively recruited single Scottish highlanders and their dogs, who were drawn to the foothills and its rugged terrain which echoed the Scottish Highlands.
An Taigh / The House: Held will be displayed until 11 October 2026.
