Kā Kaupapa o te Wā
What’s On
Tīrama Mai 2025
Tīrama Mai is back this winter to celebrate Puanga Matariki with an array of artistic lighting and cultural displays in the heart of Ōtautahi Christchurch.
Disruptive Landscapes: Contemporary Art from Japan
Quietly powerful and immersive video works revealing the politics behind our view of landscape.
John Vea: Ini Mini Mani Mou
Powerful new work examining the complexities of the immigration process in Aotearoa New Zealand.
E tuwhera ana te wharetoi i kā rā e 7 o te wiki, 10am - 5pm
Ka tuwhera ki te 9pm i kā pō Wenerei
Open 7 days, 10am - 5pm
Late night Wednesday until 9pm
Uruka utukore, ahokore utukore
Free entry, free wifi
Seeing all my favourite artworks again...
'Seeing them is like visiting old friends' - John from Cashmere.
Gordon Crook 1921 – 2011
If, when we're open, an artist represented in our collection dies, we generally arrange for a work of theirs to be hung at the top of the stairs on the side of the entrance to the Burdon Family Gallery, with a label that notes their contribution and recent passing. I like this simple convention and the respect it shows for an arts practitioner whose contribution to New Zealand art we've thought well enough of to acquire.
‘Oceania’ x 2 in Wellington
I was pleased to see both components of Oceania in Wellington on the opening weekend. A great idea for City Gallery and Te Papa to mount connected exhibitions, effectively two distinct components of one show, and to market these together. It's an effective and rewarding combo for all those international visitors coming to the city over the next month or two.
Touch
For obvious reasons, we in Christchurch have spent lots of time lately looking down rather than up and out. Life in the post-quake city is governed by what the earth is up to, and you've got to watch your step.
Gazumped
'Art today longs to be topical, outward-looking, connected, responsive to site and situation. And it spends a lot of time fretting that it isn't. But an event like the earthquake short-circuits this logic horribly.'
Venice Biennale
It's taken me a while to write about Venice, but the show's still on and the first week of the 2011 Biennale in this memorable and surprising city still fresh in my mind. I was New Zealand's commissioner again and it was a proud moment for us all as visitors poured in – and stayed to listen to the continuous concert – during the Vernissage (the opening few days, in 2011 from 30 May-3 June) of the longest-standing and most prestigious international art exhibition.
The Magic of Printmaking
In these interesting times, Gallery staff are finding themselves turning their hand to a variety of tasks, sometimes a far call from their usual responsibilities when the Gallery is open to the public.