Six art experiences not to miss in Auckland
Artwork (clockwise from top right) by Dale Frank, Sione Falteau, Ane Tonga and Breeze Durham.
1. Declaration: A Pacific Feminist Agenda at Auckland Art Gallery
Declaration is an exhibition of Pacific Feminist art in New Zealand. Bringing together work from 12 artists from across the Pacific, Declaration incorporates the many identities within which women move, including diverse Pacific gender identities.
Declaration documents how Pacific women’s place in New Zealand has always been contested and struggled for. The exhibition advances crucial feminist concepts such as tino rangatiratanga and resilience. It is an empowering experience, as well as an important educational journey centring the voices of Aotearoa’s strong women.
Declaration is showing at Auckland Art Gallery until 31st July 2022
2. Kei Waenganui o ngā Atua Wāhine at Gus Fisher Gallery
Kei Waenganui o ngā Atua Wāhine is an audio archive of ten Wāhine Māori creative practitioners, who have recorded advice they wish they had been given for future generations. The project’s kaupapa is to centre the voices of Wāhine Māori in art and design. The archive is installed at Gus Fisher gallery.
Accompanying the audio is a publication called Kurawaka that collates excerpts from the audio archive. Kurawaka explores how a historically western medium of sharing information can be better designed to tell stories of this group of Wāhine Māori more appropriately. Kurawaka’s creator is Breeze Durham (Te Hikitu, Ngāti Kura, Ngāti Ruamahue).
3. Turning a Page, Starting a Chapter at Gus Fisher Gallery
Turning a page, starting a chapter embraces the artistic potential of experimentation through new threads of art-making and the sites that they temporarily inhabit.
The exhibition is dedicated to work by Aotearoa-based artists Sione Faletau (Aotearoa/Tonga), Ana Iti (Te Rarawa) and Jade Townsend (Ngāti Kahunguru).
Branching through the distinct architectural spaces of Gus Fisher Gallery, the artists examine histories of surface, environment and place in different ways.
Narratives of storytelling merge into filmic and sculptural compositions where ideas of recording and re-telling personal and shared histories intertwine.
The gallery:
With a dedicated space to read and have a coffee, the Gus Fisher Gallery offers a respite for those looking to interact with ambitious and high calibre art in a stunning heritage space. The gallery creates a comfortable space for those who are daunted by the white walls and sterile, open spaces of traditional galleries.
Both exhibitions run from 30th April to 9th July 2022.
4. Season Gallery
6 Lower Albert Street, Commercial Bay
Season is a partnership between artist and curator Jade Townsend (Ngāti Kahungunu, Te Ātihaunui-a-Pāpārangi) and writer/curator Francis McWhannell that formed during the extended lockdown of 2021.
Based in downtown Tāmaki Makaurau, the gallery places a strong emphasis on curated exhibitions and public engagement.
Their current group show (available until mid-May) features Becky Bliss, Gerard Dombroski, Ruby Joy Eade, Robyn Kahukiwa, Ellen Itzel Mena and Ron te Kawa.
5. Eight Hours at Two Rooms Gallery
Two Rooms is a contemporary gallery hidden inside a warehouse in Newton. In Eight Hours, New Zealand artist Gretchen Albrecht represents an old and fundamental Christian theme, the eight hours of the Divine Office.
Albrecht has painted eight of her signature hemisphere shapes to represent each hour and their character. Each hemisphere holds a lot of movement, which relays a very cyclical and timeless beauty.
Eight Hours is showing until 28th May.
6. Dale Frank at Gow Langsford Gallery
Australian artist Dale Frank presents In The Dark the Drunken Ghosts of Masturbations Past at Gow Langsford Gallery, and it’s a visceral experience. The gallery walls have been repainted black, against which Frank’s paintings glow, luminous and ghostly. Frank’s paintings stray from the tradition of paint and brush. The paint climbs out from the canvas to meet the viewer with an iridescent shine. You can go to experience Frank’s work for yourself until Wednesday, 4th May.
