Responding directly to the bridge’s diagonal metal framework, Reynolds applies ultramarine acrylic across most—but not all—of the overbridge’s glass windows, leaving the panels nearest to the buildings clear to preserve natural light. Through the blue painted fields, masked linear gaps carve through the surface, echoing the architecture’s inherent dynamism and offering fractured views of the street below.

The result is a suspended experience: a semi-transparent walkway, washed in deep blue, that momentarily lifts the pedestrian from the city’s momentum. By day, the work captures shifting urban light; by evening, it becomes a quiet beacon above Lower Albert Street. Long Blue Drawing speaks to the way art can reshape the everyday, re-framing how we move through familiar spaces.

John Reynolds is one of Aotearoa’s most celebrated contemporary artists. Over a career spanning three decades, he has cultivated a distinctive visual language that blends painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, and site-specific works. His layered practice weaves together sketches, plans, expressive marks, symbols, and fragments of text to create rich, poetic landscapes.

Based in Auckland, Reynolds’ work often explores the spaces between language, architecture, and abstraction. His public commissions, such as BIG WAVE TERRITORY in New Plymouth and One Hundred and Eighty-Nine Steps in Auckland’s Freyberg Place, are celebrated for the way they integrate seamlessly into the urban fabric while offering moments of reflection.

Beyond the gallery, Reynolds has collaborated across architecture, music, publishing, and fashion, working with some of New Zealand’s most influential designers and creatives. He is a Laureate of the Arts Foundation of New Zealand and a two-time finalist in the Walters Prize at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.