What’s On
Yona Lee: Fountain in Transit
A lively, restorative under-stairs sculpture for Te Puna o Waiwhetū.
Season's Greetings
A selection of Christmas cards created by distinguished local artists.
Dummies & Doppelgängers
The unforgettable art of being someone else.
Open 7 days, 10am - 5pm
Late night Wednesday until 9pm
Free entry, free wifi
Exhibition
Ship Nails and Tail Feathers: Historic Treasures from the Collections of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū and Canterbury Museum
The stories told by rare, extravagant – and even curiously ordinary – objects.
Commentary
Cut It Out
Make no bones about it, Ink on Paper: Aotearoa New Zealand Printmakers of the Modern Era is an exhibition I have long wanted to curate. I acquired my first print direct from Ralph Hotere when I was an art history student here in Christchurch many years ago. Hotere was the artist that piqued my interest in printmaking, but it is the Aotearoa New Zealand printmakers of the 1910s through to the 1950s that I love the most. Ink on Paper focuses on a generation of artists that were at the forefront of the medium when, following the printmaking revival in Britain, printmaking in Aotearoa was increasingly becoming accepted as an art form rather than simply a method of reproduction.
Commentary
The Gift
"I was born in Akaroa and grew up on Banks Peninsula. My parents have a farm there. I went to high school in Rangiora, then worked in Christchurch for three years before going to Dunedin. I grew up in a fairly isolated environment. In my three years in Christchurch nothing really happened to me. There were no outward changes in my life. I had no friends there. I was quite alone – and I started to paint."
Exhibition
Die Cuts and Derivations
An expansive installation by Peter Robinson sparks a collection-based look at how artists investigate and respond to space, through line, materials and improvisation.
Commentary
Ka Mua Ka Muri
Our histories are always with us, but who is telling the story? The Gallery’s new collection hang, Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection offers up a range of different perspectives on how the past and future might intersect, and invites us to rethink how we commonly see our heritage. Here, the exhibition’s curators have each selected a work from the exhibition for a closer look.
Notes
Ralph Hotere: Ātete (to resist)
The extraordinary exhibition Ralph Hotere: Ātete (to resist) provided Ōtautahi Christchurch audiences with a truly remarkable opportunity to experience artworks by Ralph Hotere at first hand. Ralph was one of Aotearoa’s most talented artists and, significantly for Christchurch, two of his most notable works, Godwit/Kuaka (1977) and Black Phoenix (1984–88), were shown for the first time in the city.
Exhibition
Ink on Paper: Aotearoa New Zealand Printmakers of the Modern Era
An exquisite selection of etchings, lithographs, wood-engravings and linocuts made during one of the most dynamic periods in Aotearoa’s art history.
Notes
Ivy Fife
The Gallery has been actively acquiring good strong examples of artworks by Ivy Fife that show her at her best over the past two years with an aim to have her better represented in the permanent collection. Four paintings and two linocuts have been acquired, works that will easily hold their own alongside examples by her Canterbury contemporaries Bill Sutton, Rita Angus, Leo Bensemann, Doris Lusk, Louise Henderson and Rata Lovell Smith.
Exhibition
Joanna Margaret Paul: Imagined in the Context of a Room
A major retrospective celebrating the career and legacy of Joanna Margaret Paul.
Exhibition
Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection
Making room for fresh voices, untold narratives and disruptive ideas.