Gary Tricker

Born in Wellington in 1938, Gary is a fifth generation New Zealander whose ancestors came from Norfolk and Suffolk. His father was a railwayman and much of his childhood was spent in rural railway settlements such as Hihitahi and Shannon. This left him with a life long passion for trains and in perpetual awe of the contrast steel railway lines cut through the landscape.

Gary moved to the Hutt Valley where he attended Hutt Valley High School and was much encouraged by Joe Coe. He worked as a Graphic Artist at the National Publicity Studio of the Government Tourist Department, Government Printing Office and Technical Correspondence School over the period of 18 years. In 1965 and again in 1976 Gary received a Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council Award to study in Australia and New Zealand.

Since 1976 Gary has worked as a full time print maker. He is known internationally for his whimsical, semi-abstract, slightly surreal images that possess an entertainment value akin to well known lyric tales. In 1976 a reviewer in Switzerland wrote that a selection of Tricker’s etchings had figures that were “reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland” and that “similar to Tolkien, Tricker has created for himself his own mythology, an intimate esoteric world of imagery..” At the same time, the reviewer found in the images allusions to the Masic Theatre from Herman Hesse’s “Steppenwolf”. During the 1970’s, Tricker contributed etchings to International Graphic Biennial exhibitions in Argentina, India, Yugoslavia, Spain, France, Germany, Poland and America. He has also shown in one-man exhibitions in Germany and Switzerland as well as exhibiting in galleries in England.

Tricker now lives in the Wairarapa town of Greytown surrounded by the objects of his imagery – memorabilia of trains and railways, black cats, railway clocks, the New Zealand landscape and other everyday things.