Toby Raine

Artist Profile

Biography

Raine’s family managed to take a road trip to the Coromandel last year, a welcome escape after lockdown. Lord Huron had just released their fourth studio album, Long Lost. It was the perfect soundtrack for a first family vacation. The poetic lyricism marked the beauty of the coast and the tranquility of the landscape. It also served as a happy escapism on their return to the city just before lockdown set in again, listening to it at home was a reminder of the ‘getaway’.
Music has always been an integral part of Toby Raine’s studio practice, often informing his subject matter. With this body of work, he borrows from surreal and melancholic cadences, to consider the softer aspects of the characters that he often paints. Peaceful introspective protagonists, in meadows and natural environment with their pets, and thoughts, in private moments of reflection, gratitude and unbridled freedom:

Send me to the mountains
Let me go free forever (ever)
I’ll be running through the forest
Dancing in the fields like this forever (ever)

Inspired by the hangover of academia and then spurred on methodically by music, New Zealand-based Toby Raine has emerged as a leading figure in the contemporary New Zealand art-scape for his heavily impasto and gestural portraits. Raine completed his Doctorate of Fine Arts at Elam School of Fine Arts. In Australia, represented by James Makin Gallery, the artist has quickly gained a strong collectorship, with a sell-out Australian debut solo exhibition, Hair of the Dog. Raine is a regular finalist in the Wallace Art Awards and the Molly Morpeth Canaday Award.

BIOGRAPHY

Send me to the mountains
Let me go free forever (ever)
I’ll be running through the forest
Dancing in the fields like this forever (ever)

Exhibitions

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022 Iconic, Scott Lawrie, Auckland
2021 The last innocent thing left, Scott Lawrie Gallery, Auckland
2021 Reverent, Scott Lawrie Gallery, Auckland
2020 Saints, Sinners, Saliva, James Makin Gallery, Melbourne
2019 Heroines and Heroin, Paige Blackie, Wellington
2018 Hair of the Dog, James Makin Gallery, Melbourne
2018 Heroes and Hangovers, Gow Langsford, Auckland
2018 Smoke ’em if you got ’em, Page Galleries, Wellington
2017 Sydney Contemporary, Paige Blackie
2017 Man Crush, Paige Blackie, Wellington.
2016 Man Crush, Gus Fisher, Auckland
2015 The Beard Portraits, Wallace Gallery Morrinsville Flexi-Space, Morrinsville
2013 666 Chapter Two, George Fraser Gallery, Auckland
2012 Omen, Second Storey Gallery, Auckland
2012 Atrocity Kitchen, RM Gallery, Auckland
2011 Deep Zen Pill, St Paul Street Gallery Three, Auckland
2009 First, Solo Exhibition, Space 20

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 Summer New, James Makin Gallery, Melbourne
2022 Sensation 22 Group Show, Scott Lawrie, Auckland
2021 Sydney Contemporary, Online
2021 The Lockdown, James Makin Gallery, Melbourne
2021 Summer New, James Makin Gallery, Melbourne
2020 Semicolon Project, Charity Auction, Foenander Gallery Auckland
2020 Stronger at the broken Places. Creative Art Napier Art Gallery, New
Zealand
2020 Virtual Viewing Room, Melbourne Art Fair (MAF) Jun 1-7, Melbourne
2020 Auckland Art Fair, Gow Langsford Gallery, Melbourne
2019 Beyond Kapene Kuku/Captain Cook, Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington
2019 Heroines and Heroin, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland
2019 A Thousand Stories, Charity Auction, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland
2018 Sydney Contemporary, Booth B02, Gow Langsford Gallery, Sydney
2017 Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Page Blackie stand, Sydney
2017 Identification, The Vivian, Matakana
2017 Works from the Toxic Room, Antoinette Godkin Gallery, Auckland
2016 Works from the Toxic Room, Antoinette Godkin Gallery, Auckland
2016 Wallace Art Awards Travelling Show, The Dowse, Wellington
2016 The Collector/ Gather Part 4, Wallace Gallery Morrinsvile
2016 Annual Wallace Art Awards Finalist Exhibition, Auckland
2016 Show, curated by Ed Hanfling, Ramp Gallery, Hamilton
2016 A Case of Misdirection, curated by Justin Jade Morgan and Karl Bayly,
Wallace Gallery
2016 Morrinsville Molly Morpeth Canaday Award Finalist Exhibition
2015 Wallace Art Awards Travelling Show, The Dowse, Wellington
2015 Walker & Hall Waiheke Art Award Finalist Exhibition. Waiheke
2015 Annual Wallace Art Awards Finalist Exhibition, Auckland
2015 No Remedy, but More, Antoinette Godkin Gallery, Auckland
2015 Much of Muchness, Wallace Gallery Morrinsville, Morrinsville
2015 Nadene Milne Summer Group Exhibition, Arrowtown
2015 Molly Morpeth Canaday Award Finalist Exhibition
2014 Saloon Des Ferari, Ferari Gallery, Auckland
2014 Molly Morpeth Canaday Award Finalist Exhibition
2014 Painting Now: Out of Elam, TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre
2013 Saloon Des Ferari, Ferari Gallery, Auckland
2013 666 Chapter One/Oh Dr Heaven, Toby Raine and Guy Howard Smith,
2013 St Paul Street Gallery Three
2013 When Music’s the Muse, Group Show, Uxbridge Creative Centre
2013 National Contemporary Art Award, Waikato Museum, Hamilton
2013 Fanatic: Toby Raine and Rebecca Delange, Strines Gallery, Melbourne,
Australia
2013 Painting Now: Out of Elam, The Vivian Gallery, Matakana
2012 Saloon Des Ferari, Ferari Gallery, Auckland Wallace Art Awards
Travelling Show,
2012 The Dowse, Wellington
2012 Annual Wallace Art Awards Finalist Exhibition, Auckland
2012 Best of Second Storey, Second Storey Gallery
2012 Gordon’s Walters Prize Exhibition, Snake Pit Gallery
2012 Glaister Ennor Graduate Award Exhibition, Orex Gallery
2012 Launch 2011, Projectspace B431 To Take Place, Window Gallery,
Auckland

Awards

AWARDS, PRIZES & RESIDENCIES
2016 Annual Wallace Art Awards Finalist
2016 Molly Morpeth Canaday Award Finalist
2015 Walker and Hall Waiheke Art Award Finalist
2015 Annual Wallace Art Awards Finalist Molly Morpeth Canaday Award
Finalist
2014 Molly Morpeth Canaday Award Finalist
2013 National Contemporary Art Award Finalist
2012 Annual Wallace Art Awards Finalist
2012 Glaister Ennor Graduate Art Award Finalist
2012 NZAAT Emerging Artist Award Winner
2012 Studio Art Supplies Artists Alliance Award Winner
2012 Molly Morpeth Canaday Award Finalist
2011 Annual Wallace Art Awards Finalist TCAC Emerging Artist Awards Finalist
2010 Rob Thomas Auckland Art Challenge Overall Winner
2010 Henrietta and Lola Anne Tunbridge Watercolour Scholarship Winner
Adam Portraiture Award
2010 Denise Gerard Scholarship Winner
2009 Main Art Award Winner Henrietta and Lola Anne Tunbridge Watercolour
Scholarship Finalist
2008 Adam Portraiture Award Finalist

ARTWORKS

Toby Raine When the Artist becomes Baron Yeti he runs with the Bulls naked, with Roses 2023 Oil on canvas 150 x 120 cm $14,000.00 ENQUIRE →
Toby Raine The Embrace of Josh Tillman (Father John Misty) and Elizabeth Woodridge Grant (Lana Del Ray) 2023 Oil on canvas 150 x 120 cm $14,000.00 ENQUIRE →
Toby Raine The Conscience of Lana Del Ray (Lana Del Ray is not her Real Name!) 2023 Oil on canvas 150 x 120 cm $14,000.00 ENQUIRE →
Toby Raine Orville Peck Ruminating about Removing his Mask 2023 Oil on canvas 150 x 120 cm $14,000.00 ENQUIRE →
Toby Raine Mr. and Mrs. Misty or Mr. and Mrs. Tillman? (Father John Misty with wife) 2023 Oil on canvas 150 x 120 cm $14,000.00 ENQUIRE →
Toby Raine Matt Berninger won't f*** us over, he's Mr. November 2023 Oil on canvas 150 x 120 cm $14,000.00 ENQUIRE →
Toby Raine Jim Morrison becoming Mr. Mojo Risin as he Rises from the Grave 2023 Oil on canvas 200 x 100 cm $16,000.00 ENQUIRE →
Toby Raine I ruined the Ruen Brothers! (Ruen is conflated from Rupert and Henry) 2023 Oil on canvas 150 x 120 cm $14,000.00 ENQUIRE →
Toby Raine Heaven Can't Wait (Meatloaf becoming Michael Lee Aday again as he ascends to Heaven) 2023 Oil on canvas 150 x 120 cm $14,000.00 ENQUIRE →
Toby Raine Father John Misty with Dead Flowers, on Acid, Realising he's Josh Tillman 2023 Oil on canvas 150 x 120 cm $14,000.00 ENQUIRE →