Kā Kaupapa o te Wā
What’s On
Raymond McIntyre: A Modernist View
Dynamic and progressive paintings and woodcuts from one of Aotearoa’s New Zealand foremost modernist artists.
Living Archives
Archives that tell stories about artists and history in Aotearoa
Whāia te Taniwha
Māori artists consider the enduring relevance of taniwha in Aotearoa.
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Collection
Colin McCahon Northland
In 1958, Colin McCahon spent several months in America, visiting numerous art museums to see historical and contemporary art from the United States and Europe. Returning to a wintry Aotearoa New Zealand, he struggled to readjust. Eventually he found solace and inspiration in memories of a place very close to his heart – the wild, wind-sculpted landscape of Aotearoa’s Far North. Oil paintings were followed by a series of ink wash drawings, painted on paper spread out over the floor like a continuous, unfolding frieze. They are dark and lonely images, full of longing and a sense of return. “It’s a painful love, loving a land,” McCahon wrote. “It takes a long time.”
(Absence, May 2023)
Collection
Colin McCahon Northland
In 1958, Colin McCahon spent several months in America, visiting numerous art museums to see historical and contemporary art from the United States and Europe. Returning to a wintry Aotearoa New Zealand, he struggled to readjust. Eventually he found solace and inspiration in memories of a place very close to his heart – the wild, wind-sculpted landscape of Aotearoa’s Far North. Oil paintings were followed by a series of ink wash drawings, painted on paper spread out over the floor like a continuous, unfolding frieze. They are dark and lonely images, full of longing and a sense of return. “It’s a painful love, loving a land,” McCahon wrote. “It takes a long time.”
(Absence, May 2023)
Collection
Colin McCahon Northland
In 1958, Colin McCahon spent several months in America, visiting numerous art museums to see historical and contemporary art from the United States and Europe. Returning to a wintry Aotearoa New Zealand, he struggled to readjust. Eventually he found solace and inspiration in memories of a place very close to his heart – the wild, wind-sculpted landscape of Aotearoa’s Far North. Oil paintings were followed by a series of ink wash drawings, painted on paper spread out over the floor like a continuous, unfolding frieze. They are dark and lonely images, full of longing and a sense of return. “It’s a painful love, loving a land,” McCahon wrote. “It takes a long time.”
(Absence, May 2023)
Collection
Zina Swanson Teary Flood
In 1973, a book called The Secret Life of Plants described experiments on how plants respond to humans and experience feelings, such as pain, fear or sadness, maybe even love. It told of a spiritually gifted friend, Vivian Wiley, who believed she could communicate with plants and documented her emotional exchanges with two saxifrage leaves that she had picked from her garden. The leaf that she ignored withered and died, while the one she paid attention to thrived, thereby proving that plants can read your mind. Drawing on the psychology of plants and theories of plant perception, this work is part of a series of watercolour paintings from Christchurch artist Zina Swanson titled For Vivian, a window into the world of plant paranormal and our reciprocal relationships with nature. These intricate works show the merging of people, plants, and natural resources, our interconnection with the environment, its seasonal changes and variations.
(Melanie Oliver, April 2020)
Collection
Zina Swanson Sun Eye, Sad Eye
In 1973, a book called The Secret Life of Plants described experiments on how plants respond to humans and experience feelings, such as pain, fear or sadness, maybe even love. It told of a spiritually gifted friend, Vivian Wiley, who believed she could communicate with plants and documented her emotional exchanges with two saxifrage leaves that she had picked from her garden. The leaf that she ignored withered and died, while the one she paid attention to thrived, thereby proving that plants can read your mind. Drawing on the psychology of plants and theories of plant perception, this work is part of a series of watercolour paintings from Christchurch artist Zina Swanson titled For Vivian, a window into the world of plant paranormal and our reciprocal relationships with nature. These intricate works show the merging of people, plants, and natural resources, our interconnection with the environment, its seasonal changes and variations.
(Melanie Oliver, April 2020)