oOh! brings ‘isolation art’ to the streets in country’s largest art exhibition

oOh!media is bringing the biggest public art exhibition the country has ever seen to neighbourhoods around New Zealand, displaying ‘isolation’ works from local artists as part of a campaign with the Urban Art Foundation.

The exhibition, “In Isolation”, focuses on artwork produced by local artists during the current COVID-19 lockdown period. Artists including Alice Tulkens, Liam Barr and John Crawford will have their artwork displayed across oOh!’s Street Furniture Live and ShopaLive networks nationally.

Other works of art from the Urban Art Foundation will also be displayed at 200 locations across oOh!’s Street Furniture Classic network as part of the campaign.

oOh!media New Zealand’s General Manager, Nick Vile, said the longstanding partnership with Urban Art Foundation has been focused on bringing art to the public, with the “In Isolation” exhibition a continuation of this approach but the first at such scale.

“At a time of great uncertainty and anxiety in our local communities, this exhibition is hopefully a welcome distraction for citizens while they are out getting their daily exercise and fresh air or picking up their essential supplies,” he said.

“Great things have been achieved in periods of isolation throughout history - from Shakespeare's writing, King Lear to the theory of relativity being conceptualised, hopefully, the “In Isolation” exhibition can provide  Kiwis with the inspiration to do something great while we are in lockdown!”

The Creative Director of The Urban Art Foundation, Andrew Hagen, said they were thrilled to share the powerful works with local communities all around New Zealand through oOh!’s extensive network.

“We are really passionate about making art more accessible and sharing the emotions of these artists and artworks – which range from comedy and fear to anger and sadness –during these extremely difficult times,” he said.

“The works really show what great things can be produced while in isolation, and our partnership with oOh! has allowed us to make this happen and amplify our artists’ responses to COVID-19 around New Zealand.”

The campaign went live this week and will run until 29th April. For more information on the exhibition, visit https://urbanart.nz/exhibitions.html.