Kā Kaupapa o te Wā
What’s On
Edith Collier: Early New Zealand Modernist
A rare opportunity to view the work of one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most adventurous and experimental modernist artists.
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.
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
Notes
But briefly fooled
About four years ago we were contacted by a person who wanted to donate a watercolour painting depicting Christchurch Cathedral Square, by Charles Nathaniel Worsley, to the Gallery.
Exhibition
Daniel Crooks: Seek Stillness in Movement
Hectic city scenes transformed into contemplative meditations of extraordinary beauty.
Notes
It’s not as bad as Dusky Sound…
So said photographer Mark Adams to the brave art lovers who battled through the storm to hear him talk on Tuesday night. And they were glad they did.
Notes
Precipitation
The heavy flooding, fallen trees, insane detours, and generally unpleasant weather are all perhaps best summed up by this abandoned umbrella.
Collection
Katie Thomas Westenra Terrace
Graphite, topography and a sense of unforeseen disruption come together in Katie Thomas’s 4.25 metre Westenra Terrace, a frottage rubbing from a road surface on the Cashmere hills, transformed by the 2011 Ōtautahi Christchurch earthquakes. Thomas found herself drawn to the clusters of lines appearing on city roads, including temporary repairs intended to prevent further damage. Her interest in these amorphous ‘found drawings’ resulted in several large-scale rubbings (she was assisted during the process by thoughtful neighbours turning up with protective orange cones). The large drawings also became reference material – plus-sized notebooks to feed into her painting practice.
(Die Cuts and Derivations, 11 March – 2 July 2023)
Collection
Foy Brothers Puahaere, Rangatira of Ngāti Pāoa
Puahaere Te Wherowhero (also known as Ema Te Aouru) was the daughter of the second Māori King, Tāwhiao Tūkāroto Matutaera Pōtatau Te Wherowhero and his third wife Aotea. Tāwhiao is said to have disapproved of Puahaere’s marriage to James Mackay, a Pākehā government official who left his wife and family to live with her. Echoing an experience common to many Māori at that time, she later faced numerous land ownership disputes in court, eventually facing bankruptcy and threats of imprisonment. Her newspaper obituary in 1901, however, remembered her as: [O]ne of the most noted chieftainesses of the district, who […] took an intelligent interest in the improvement of the conditions prevailing amongst the Maoris, and always gladly hailed the advent of anyone who had a comprehensive scheme for the advancement of the natives.Brothers James and Joseph Foy opened a thriving photographic portrait studio in the goldmining town of Thames in the Coromandel in 1872. Māori sitters were typically photographed in customary clothing and adornment to increase commercial appeal (most Māori by this time wore European-style clothing). This photograph also became the basis of an oil portrait by Gottfried Lindauer. (Te Wheke: Pathways Across Oceania, 2021)
