Paris, New York – and now Hamilton – for Raglan artist’s exhibition

Images, left to right: Detail, A Life Below Water, Yaniv Janson, Framework 003, Llyr Williams, Impulse, Liam Bourton

Please Do Touch, an exhibition by Raglan artist Yaniv Janson, previously displayed in Paris and New York, will be a featured exhibition at ArtsPost, part of Waikato Museum, in Hamilton from Friday 10 January.

The exhibition features a series of paintings that explore United Nations Sustainable Development Goals such as climate change, water quality, oceanic ecological systems, poverty and sustainable cities. They examine what could happen if we act, and what will happen if we don’t.

“This exhibition represents what is most important in life: the water we drink, the seas around us, the cities we live in, the people we don’t always see and the delicate balance of our world,” Mr Janson says.

Please Do Touch was exhibited in 2017 in Paris, supported by Creative New Zealand, and travelled to New York as a solo exhibition at the UN Headquarters in 2018.

Mr Janson, who is an award-winning artist with autism and epilepsy, says “It’s important for me to show that disability is not a barrier to achieving.”

Also opening at ArtsPost this week are two other exhibitions, Obsessed by Liam Bourton, and A Product of Nature, by Llyr Williams.

Liam Bourton says he takes a mathematical and systematic approach to creating his art “My work explores the concept of simplicity to complexity and the relationship between historical and contemporary abstraction.”

Llyr Williams combines his background in product design and art with his current profession as a stone mason to produce multi-media works that express the beauty he sees in New Zealand stone.

Llyr Williams believes it is important to let daily life and nature take its course to dictate the outcome of his artwork.

An opening preview of all three exhibitions is being held at 5.30pm on Thursday 9 January and the exhibitions will then be open every day until Monday 10 February.

Waikato Museum Director Cherie Meecham says: “ArtsPost provides a great space for exhibitions by local artists and helps forge relationships between the arts community and the wider Hamilton community. Exhibitions change every month and we are fortunate in having a real depth of local talent to exhibit.”

-Hamilton City Council