Mark Adams: A Survey | He Kohinga Whakaahua

For more than 50 years New Zealand artist Mark Adams has photographed Aotearoa New Zealand – its land, peoples and complex, multilayered histories. Over the decades he has sustained a deep and ongoing engagement with whakairo Māori (Māori carving), the work of celebrated tufuga tatatau (master tattoo artists) in Samoan communities in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, the places where Captain James Cook and his crew came ashore, and the locations where Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed. His practice explores cross-cultural exchanges in Aotearoa and across the globe — within landscapes, taonga (treasures), museums, and the practice of photography itself.

This exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of his work. Bringing together black-and-white and colour photographs made decades apart, the exhibition examines Adams’s compelling and distinctive approach to image-making in Aotearoa.