Whakaaturaka
Exhibitions
Taiopeka
Events
E Whakaaturia ana Ināianei
On display
Ian Lochhead: Depicting the Architecture of Rome and Venice
Peter McIntre The Grand Canal, Venice. Watercolour.Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, presented by Lady Isaac, 1993
Talk
Saturday 3 October, 11am
Philip Carter Family Auditorium
Free
Of all Italian cities, Rome and Venice have exerted the greatest attraction for artists. Ian Lochhead will reflect on how the architecture drew them in.
The presence of the ruins of Roman civilization in the one, and the unique relationship of the other with its surrounding lagoon, have offered unrivalled opportunities for artists to celebrate the architecture of the two cities. Paradoxically it was a Venetian, the architect and etcher Giovanni Piranesi, who is celebrated for his depictions of both ancient and modern Rome, while in Venice, Antonio Canaletto built his whole career around recording his native city.
This lecture will explore the changing vision of the two cities as reflected in the works of both well and lesser known artists from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, in order to better understand their enduring attraction for artists and tourists alike.
Related reading: Talk, Architecture, Free event, Rome, event
Exhibition
Timeless: Treasures from the Historical Collection
19 September 2026 – 30 May 2027
Across centuries and continents, artists have long looked outward in a spirit of discovery.
Commentary
The Lines That Are Left
Of landscape itself as artefact and artifice; as the ground for the inscribing hand of culture and technology; as no clean slate.
— Joanna Paul
The residential Red Zone is mostly green. After each house is demolished, contractors sweep up what is left, cover the section with a layer of soil and plant grass seed. Almost overnight, driveway, yard, porch, garage, shed and house become a little paddock; the border of plants and trees outlining it the only remaining sign that there was once a house there.
Interview
The fault is ours: Joseph Becker on Lebbeus Woods
There was a packed auditorium at CPIT in Christchurch this August when visiting San Francisco Museum of Modern Art curator Joseph Becker delivered a lecture on architect Lebbeus Woods. And it wasn't hard to guess why. In addition to many other achievements, Woods is renowned for his highly speculative project, Inhabiting the Quake. Senior curator Justin Paton spoke to Becker about Lebbeus Woods, and what Christchurch might learn from him.
Article
Laying out Foundations
Looking broadly at the topic of local architectural heritage, Reconstruction: conversations on a city had been scheduled to open at the Gallery but will now instead show on outdoor exhibition panels along Worcester Boulevard from 23 June. Supplementing works from the collection with digital images from other collections, curator Ken Hall brings together an arresting art historical tour of the city and its environs.
Article
Miles: A life in architecture
Best known for the Christchurch Town Hall and Wellington's Michael Fowler Centre, Sir Miles Warren is the doyen of post-war New Zealand architecture, the first New Zealander to be knighted for services to architecture, an Icon of the Arts Foundation of New Zealand, and a leading figure in the arts in Christchurch. The garden at his Governors Bay home, Ohinetahi, beautifully crafted by Miles with his sister Pauline Trengrove and her husband John, has also secured for him a reputation as one of our most remarkable garden designers.
Article
The Garden of Cosmic Speculation
Over several years I have worked on a Scottish landscape called, immodestly, the Garden of Cosmic Speculation, speculating with scientists and others on the fundamental laws and forces behind nature and what they might mean to us. Using growing nature to conjecture on what is basic to the universe is an old practice common to gardeners, but it raises some unlikely questions.
