Roy Good has been prominent in both the art and design fields for 55 years.
As at 2025, he has exhibited in a grand total of 32 solo & survey exhibitions in his long career.
After graduating from Christchurch’s Ilam School of Art, he moved to Auckland in 1966, and began a long association with Television New Zealand (then NZBC), including a stint as Head of Design from 1983-89. As a painter, Good exhibited at the Barry Lett Galleries in the early 1970s, then the Petar/James Gallery, where he was one of a group of abstract artists, including Mrkusich, O’Sullivan, Scott, Thornley and Walters, who, spurred on by their far-sighted dealer Petar Vuletic, rejected more popular local subjects and styles in an attempt to match international standards. In the 1990s Good was frequently engaged in high-profile corporate design projects, and he also taught part-time at the Manukau School of Art and Design and the Auckland School of Interior Design.
In 2007-8, Lopdell House Gallery in Auckland held a survey of his work curated by Ed Hanfling, 'In Good Form – The Abstract Art of Roy Good, 1967-2007', accompanied by a book of the same title.
In 2018 to mark the 50 years of art practice and exhibiting, Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery in Auckland published a book titled 'Parallel Universe - the Art & Design of Roy Good' which was launched with an exhibition of the same title at the gallery in Titirangi. The following year the exhibition was hosted by the Centre of Contemporary Art in Christchurch, the artist’s hometown. Good lives in West Auckland and is represented by The Grey Gallery, in Picton by The Diversion Gallery and in Christchurch, Chambers Gallery.
Curriculum Vitae
Born Timaru, New Zealand, 1945. Dip. F.A University of Canterbury 1965
Awarded Sesqui-Centennial Medal for Service to New Zealand
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Barry Lett Gallery, Auckland - 1970, 1972 & 1973
Petar-James Gallery, Auckland - 1974
Gallery Data, Auckland - 1977, 1978
New Vision Gallery, Auckland - 1981 & 1982
Artis Gallery, Auckland - 1985
Aberhart North Gallery, Auckland - 1991
G2K Gallery, Auckland - 2002
Artis Gallery, Auckland - 2004 & 2007
Retrospective, Lopdell Gallery, Titirangi - 2007-2008
Artis Gallery, Auckland - 2009
Paulnache Gallery, Gisbourne - 2009
‘Triangles, Octagons & Lintels – Shaped paintings from the 1970’s – 2010’
Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch - 2011
Artis Gallery, Auckland - 2011
‘Abstract Reunion’ Roy Good & JS Parker, Artis Gallery, Auckland - 2013
‘Recent Paintings’ Roy Good & J S Parker, Artis gallery, Auckland - 2014
‘Converging Lines’ Roy Good, 241 Chambers Gallery, Christchurch - 2014
‘Modernism meets Tane Mahuta’ The Diversion Gallery, Picton - 2015
‘Bisecting Planes’ Artis Gallery, Auckland - 2016
‘Diamond Matrix Series’ Chambers Gallery, Christchurch - 2017
‘Parallel Universe - the Art & Design of Roy Good’ Te Uru Gallery - 2018
‘Parallel Universe’ Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch - 2019
‘Gothic Revival’ Northart Gallery Auckland - 2021
‘Squares Cascade’ Scott Lawrie Gallery, Auckland - 2022
‘Featured Exhibition’ Scott Lawrie Gallery, Auckland Art Fair - 2022
‘Transverse Series’ The Grey Gallery Auckland - 2025
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Vulcan Gallery, Auckland - 1968
Barry Lett Gallery, Auckland - 1969
Five Young Auckland Painters, Manawatu Art Gallery - 1971
NZ Young Contemporaries, Auckland City Art Gallery - 1971
‘Drawings’ Barry Lett Gallery - 1972
Tokoroa Painting Award Exhibition, Tokoroa - 1972
‘The Group’ Canterbury Society of Arts, Christchurch - 1974
Auckland Society of Arts Festival Exhibition, Auckland - 1975
Industrial Chemicals Art Award Exhibition, Pakuranga - 1976
Inaugural Exhibition, Gallery Data, Auckland - 1977
‘Auckland Artists’, Auckland City Art Gallery - 1978
Denis Cohn Gallery, Opening Exhibition - 1979
‘Diverse Dimensions’ New Vision Gallery, Auckland - 1981
Amnesty International Exhibition, New Vision Gallery, Auckland - 1981
‘Paintings on Paper’ Artis Gallery, Auckland - 1985
Group Show, Gallery Pacific, Auckland - 1988
Group Show, Aberhart North Gallery, Auckland - 1992
Group Shows, McPherson Gallery, Auckland 2000, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6
Vuletic & His Circle, Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland - May 2003
Vuletic & His Circle, Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui - September 2003
‘Other Worlds - A Playful Take on Abstraction’, Artis Gallery - 2007
Contemporary Art, Peter Webb Gallery - October 2007
BMW Bonnet Awards, Commissioned Artists Exhibition, Auckland - 2008
Wallace Awards Finalists Exhibition, Dowse Gallery, Lower Hutt - 2009 2010 & 2011
‘Three Degrees of Abstraction’, The Diversion Gallery, Picton - 2011
‘NZ Modernists & Their Followers’ Warwick Henderson Gallery - 2013
‘IN Box’ Invitational Group Exhibition, ARTBOX Christchurch - 2013
‘The Abstraction Practice’ Artis Gallery, Auckland - 2014
‘Modernism in New Zealand 1950 – 1970’ Art + Object, Auckland - 2014
‘Big Colour’ – Waiheke Art Gallery - 2015
‘50yr Anniversary Exhibition – Lopdell Gallery, Auckland - 2016
‘The Grid’ Art Bureau Gallery Auckland - 2019
‘Roy Good & Richard Adams’ Chambers Gallery Christchurch - 2019
‘Allusion’ The Diiversion Gallery Picton - 2022
‘Sensation 22’ Group Exhibition Scott Lawrie Gallery, Auckland - 2022
‘DECADE - Anniversary Exhibition’ Black Door Gallery, Auckland - 2023
‘Five Painters’ Bergman Gallery, Auckland - 2024
COLLECTIONS
Auckland University, Hocken Library Dunedin, Christchurch Art Gallery Manukau Institute of Technology, University of Canterbury, The James Wallace Trust, The Suter Gallery Nelson and various corporate and private collections in NZ, UK, Switzerland, Canada, USA & Germany
BIBLIOGRAPHY
'Ascent' Vol 1 No 2 1968 - Exhibition Review, GH Brown
‘NZ Painting 1839 - 1980’ - Brown / Keith, Colllins
‘The Artist’ – Edmund B Feldman, Prentice Hall, New Jersey 1982
Art NZ 55/1990 - ‘Images of NZ’ R Wolfe
Art NZ 59/1991 - Exhibition Review, J Daly-Peoples
‘From Pencil to Pixel’ - DMerritt, Trefoil Pub UK1987
‘Vuletic & His Circle’ - Hanfling / Wright, Auckland University 2003
Arts Review, NZ Listener, William Macaloon November 15, 2003
Art NZ 112/2004 - Exhibition Review, Ed Hanfling
Art NZ 124/2007 - Exhibition Review, Ed Hanfling
‘In Good Form – the Abstract Art of Roy Good’ - E Hanfling, Lopdell Gallery, 2007
Art NZ 126/2008 ‘Shifting the balance - The Abstract Art of Roy Good’ JB Trezise
‘Mrkusich – the Art of Transformation’, Alan Wright, Auckland University Press 2009
‘Act of Good’ – feature article CoCA Survey Exhibition, Warren Feeney, Christchurch Press 2011 ‘Triangles, Octagons & Lintels – Shaped Paintings from the 1970’s to 2010’ E Hanfling, CoCA
‘The Abstraction of Place’ – Jeff Tune Retrospective Catalogue M Dunn, Paulnache Pub 2011 ‘Architectural Abstraction’ – Exhibition Review, John Hurrel, Eyecontactsite 2011
‘240 Years of NZ Painting’ – Docking, Dunn & Hanfling, Bateman 2012
‘Behind The Canvas’ - Warwick Henderson, New Holland 2012
‘Lateral Inversions-The prints of Barry Cleavin’ Melinda Johnstone, Canty University Press, 2013
‘Abstract Reunion’ – Roy Good & J S Parker – Exhibition Review, E Hanfling, Art NZ 147/2013
‘Mervyn Williams – Lost for words’ – Edward Hanfling, Ron Sang Publications 2014
‘Subtly Painted Abstracts’ – Judith Ritchie, The Nelson Mail, September 2015
‘True Stripes’ – Don Abbott, Art New Zealand 2016
‘Good is Good’ – Andrew Paul Wood, Eyecontactsite 2017
‘Roy Good Pioneer of Abstraction in NZ’ - Linda Tyler, ‘Takahe’ Arts Magazine 2023