Kā Kaupapa o te Wā
What’s On
Made in the Pacific: A Collection of Tāoga
A selection of Pacific tāoga from the Canterbury Museum in conversation with contemporary artworks that highlight the continued strength in culture and traditional art forms.
Mark Adams: A Survey | He Kohinga Whakaahua
A comprehensive survey spanning the artist's career.
Ana Iti: Ngahere Behind a Pile of Metal
An immersive installation considering the legacies of deforestation and significance of kauri trees.
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
Commentary
The Dunedin Christchurch Sound
A particularly romantic image attached to the record label Flying Nun shortly after its inception in 1981: journalists claimed it captured the purity of musicians playing without regard for fame or fortune. The label’s output became collectively known as the Dunedin Sound and formed the basis of a reputation that has shrouded Dunedin in classic rock mythology and mystery for the last forty years.
Commentary
The Meeting of Two Queens
A blue dot – warm, mid-blue – that repeats across Tongan artist Kulimoe'anga Stone Maka’s ngatu tā'uli Toga mo Bolata'ane (Tonga and Britain) (2008–10) recalls the first time the artist saw blue eyes.
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.
Notes
Paratene Matchitt (1933 - 2021)
Te Puna o Waiwhetū Christchurch Art Gallery recognizes the passing of Paratene Temokopuorongo Matchitt (Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Te Whakatōhea and Ngāti Porou).
Collection
Rata Lovell-Smith Looking North from Clifton
An early advocate of regionalist painting in Waitaha Canterbury during the 1920s and 30s, Rata Lovell-Smith’s paintings were admired by the Shurrocks. They owned her 1929 painting Back Country, Lake Selfe Area, which they gave to the Gallery and can currently be seen in the exhibition He Kapuka Oneone—A Handful of Soil upstairs. Lovell-Smith relished the Canterbury landscape, particularly the foothills and mountains inland such as those seen in the distance of this view overlooking the Ōtautahi Christchurch suburbs of Southshore and New Brighton.
(Dear Shurrie: Francis Shurrock and his contemporaries, 8 March – 13 July 2025)
Notes
Kulimoe'anga Stone Maka: Toga mo Bolata'ane
Following its star appearance in the 2020 Biennale of Sydney, a monumental work by local Tongan artist Kulimoe'anga Stone Maka is on display at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū from 21 August.
