LAGOON
Ed Bats & Andrew Rankin
9 - 31 May 2025
We are pleased to present a new two-person exhibition featuring the work of Ed Bats and Andrew Rankin. Through materially distinct yet conceptually aligned practices, both artists investigate the ways in which we perceive, frame, and engage with constructed forms.
The exhibition invites viewers to experience works that traverse sculpture, painting, photography, and installation — ranging from spatial illusions crafted with native timber to abstract assemblages shaped by material experimentation and minimalist gestures. Both artists reward sustained attention, offering works that challenge conventional understandings of surface, depth, and objecthood.
Ed Bats & Andrew Rankin
LAGOON, 9 - 31 May 2025, Artor Contemporary
Ed Bats, RSI (7 parts), 2025
Acrylic, mdf, pine, English walnut, hard wax, polycotton.
3415mm x 1400mm
Ed Bats is a Wellington-based artist whose practice began in graffiti, painting murals across Aotearoa and Europe under a pseudonym. This background informs the architectural and constructed quality of their work.
Bats’ art blends hard-edged abstraction with minimalist aesthetics, revealing layers of process through precise lines, gestures, and painted-over surfaces. Some works resemble architectural forms, while others are physically built from multiple canvases or found objects like furniture and blinds, creating assemblages that sit between painting, sculpture, and installation. Their interest in design and craftsmanship is reflected in their hands-on approach to constructing frames and stretching canvases.
Andrew Rankin, A new vivid succession, 2025
Started with an exploration of grid and slats, influenced by an admiration of the work of Reinhard Mucha, his display and use of materials. I was also thinking of an approach to collage in photography but in this case using the frame as the juxtaposing image.
1400mm x 1620mm
Andrew Rankin (b.1981 Te Whanganui-a-Tara) is based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Completing a MFA at the University of Auckland with 1st Class Honours in 2019. Since then Rankin has been the recipient of several awards such as the Molly Morpeth Canady Award (2nd place 2022 and a merit award 2025) and the Estuary Art and Ecology Award (merit 2023) as well as being awarded the Connells Bay Sculpture Trust Graduate Studio Residency at TeTuhi in 2019.
Rankin’s practice offers a unique conceptual framework that situates itself somewhere between sculptural assemblage and conceptual photography. An illusionistic space is automatic in the reproduced image, and Rankin enhances this illusion through subtle manipulations of his presentations. The conceptual relationship between frame and image, for example, is ever present in his practice. Rankin has a desire to lengthen the gaze, see more closely and foster new connections.
Andrew Rankin, Depth 43mm II (diptych), 2025
I have french polished both sides of one plank, photographed both sides then cut up the plank to make the frame of the image of the plank at the exact dimensions of the plank. A simple concept, creating a butterfly effect that is not quite symmetrical due to the thickness of the plank.
1375mm x 170mm each.
Ed Bats, Deer riversdale, 2025
Acrylic, aerosol, polyurethane, mdf
420mm x 630mm
Ed Bats, Deer riversdale, 2025
Ed Bats, It takes eleven to tango, 2025
Acrylic, gel medium, polyurethane, mdf, english walnet, hard wax.
480mm x 830mm
Ed Bats, Heaviest clouds, 2025
Acrylic, gel medium, polyurethane, English walnut, hard wax, mdf
530mm x 600mm
Andrew Rankin, Elbow elbow elbow, 2025
Started with an exploration of grid and slats, influenced by an admiration of the work of Reinhard Mucha, his display and use of materials. I was also thinking of an approach to collage in photography but in this case using the frame as the juxtaposing image.
1400mm x 1620mm
Andrew Rankin, Rewarewa composition #2, 2024
470mm x 338mm x 135mm
Andrew Rankin, Taking a photo out of my studio, using a small cloud as a focus point. (1/200 f/10 iso125) 24/4/2025 at 12:55:08, 2025
345mm x 345mm x 340mm
Enquire: hello@artor.nz