EXHIBITIONS 2016

Alex Monteith: Surface Movements Te Piha

For Surface Movements, leading New Zealand artist and former surf champion Alex Monteith collaborates with Piha communities connected with the ocean — particularly Piha surf schools — and works with them to develop a project that considers our ecological, cultural, political and economic relationships to the ocean through layered readings provided by surf instructors, surfers with a history at Piha and local tangata whenua.

30 January 2016 — 27 March 2016  |  See exhibition detail

collection Classics 2016

We’re delighted to announce our new Collection Classics series: a revolving display of timeless works from important collections around the country. This series offers visitors the opportunity to experience first-hand works of major renown and art-historical significance, but seldom seen outside of their respective collection premises.

30 January 2016 — 27 March 2016  |  See exhibition detail

They Come from Far Away: A Performance Series

They come from far away is a live performance series featuring a mixture of visiting artists from Finland, Germany, the UK, across Aotearoa and other places. The series will explore notions of the familiar/unfamiliar, being alien/belonging, being foreign/local and being seen/unseen.

10 February 2016 — 13 February 2016  |  See exhibition detail

Bepen Bhana: Frankie Goes to Bollywood

Produced in anticipation of his residency at McCahon House from January to April 2016, these large-scale diptych paintings based on photo-collages insert Bollywood film stars into West Auckland scenery.

13 February 2016 — 15 May 2016  |  See exhibition detail

Ilan Wittenberg: Faces of Jerusalem

Beggars and scholars, slaves and warriors have all walked the narrow paths of the Old City of Jerusalem. These lived experiences can often fall from focus in prominent cities like Jerusalem, where turbulent affairs prioritise the geo-political significance of spaces over the people who occupy them.

20 February 2016 — 1 May 2016  |  See exhibition detail

Yuki Kihara: A Study of a Samoan Savage

A Study of a Samoan Savage is a response, in part, to recent perceptions of Polynesian men as powerful but primitive players in Rugby culture, a phenomonen that echoes19th century treatment of Pacific peoples as athletic specimens, ripe for scientific study.

27 February 2016 — 22 May 2016  |  See exhibition detail

Curiosity Corner 2016

The Curiosity Corner is a specific exhibition space dedicated to showcasing and supporting contemporary jewellery practice. The year 2016 saw projects by Sarah Watters, Joanna Campbell and Rowan Panther, Tineke Jansen, and the collaborative jewellery initiative CLINK.

5 March 2016 — 30 June 2016  |  See exhibition detail

Dan Arps: Plastic Mouthfeel III

Dan Arps’ Plastic Mouthfeel III responds to the physical environment of West Auckland, and in particular the pyscho-geography of its suburban fringes – the complexity of the local environs informs his latest body of work.

2 April 2016 — 6 June 2016  |  See exhibition detail

uniform: Exchange

Uniform is a collective of female artists who have long been interested in employing underground sub-culture as a means to both acknowledge and create accessible, non-comformist sites of exchange...

7 May 2016 — 17 July 2016  |  See exhibition detail

O-Tu-Kapua: My Personal Cloud

The Learning Centre is busy with students learning about air quality and creating clouds as part of a collaboration between TEMP, NIWA climate scientists and the F4 artist collective. This installation is about climate science and believing we can solve problems if everyone gets involved.

19 May 2016 — 19 June 2016  |  See exhibition detail

Janet Lilo: Status Update

The exhibition Janet Lilo: Status Update is Lilo's first solo survey exhibition. A phrase cribbed from Facebook, ‘Status Update’ refers to her well-known interest in social media as material, a self-aware use of a survey exhibition as validation — and indeed elevation — of an artist’s practice, as well as a description of how Lilo has treated the works in the exhibition... Presented in association with Auckland Festival of Photography.

28 May 2016 — 28 August 2016  |  See exhibition detail

Jae Kang:Gurmon Sup

Jae Kang is an Auckland-based artist from Korea, and an avid tomato grower. Kang’s training in traditional Korean drawing – which consists of a series of slow, methodical strokes painted in ink – finds a surprising synergy with her prowess in gardening. Using irrigation piping as her material, Kang contours sinewy lines that swarm and coil together, evoking both unruly tendrils and an intricate three-dimensional drawing...

18 June 2016 — 7 September 2016  |  See exhibition detail

Yukihiro Taguchi: In Formation

Berlin-based Japanese artist Yukihiro Taguchi creates playful and temporary interventions that engage with any given environment he finds himself in. Using everyday materials found in the immediate vicinity, Taguchi creates formations that are animated through stop-motion techniques.

23 July 2016 — 18 September 2016  |  See exhibition detail

On Repeat: The Disruptive Copy

“In principle a work of art has always been reproducible”, opens Walter Benjamin in his famous essay ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’. From casting to photography to newer digital technologies, the multiplied artwork exists as a very real possibility, albeit mostly unrealised.

3 September 2016 — 6 November 2016  |  See exhibition detail

John Parker: Cause and Effect

2016 marks 50 years since celebrated West Auckland artist John Parker started making pottery. To mark the occasion, we’re presenting a major exhibition and launching a new book, both titled John Parker: Cause and Effect, to survey his extraordinary 50-year career of breaking rules and redefining what it means to make pottery in Aotearoa.

10 September 2016 — 13 November 2016  |  See exhibition detail

Andrew Ananda Voogel: Kalapani: The Jahajis’ Middle Passage

Shortly after the abolition of the African slave trade, sugar cane plantations were sustained by the labour of Indian indentured workers, who were forcibly taken from their homes. Indo-Caribbean artist Andrew Ananda Voogel, a descendent of the Jahajis of Guyana, a community whose ancestors were Indian indentured workers, recalls histories of violent departure and exile in his installations.

17 September 2016 — 13 November 2016  |  See exhibition detail

Jasmine Togo-Brisby: Bitter Sweet

Working with cultural memory, intergenerational trauma, discovery of ancestral remains on plantations, and vitally important healing practices, Togo-Brisby's art practice is one of very few islander artists delving into our shared histories of plantation colonisation across the Pacific.

24 September 2016 — 13 November 2016  |  See exhibition detail

Portage Ceramic Awards 2016

The 2016 judge is Janet DeBoos, an influential ceramic artist and teacher. Based in Canberra, Janet brings a wealth of experience to the awards, including a keen understanding of the social power of pottery and the varying contexts of production.

16 November 2016 — 5 February 2017  |  See exhibition detail

The Anniversary Show: 30 Years Later

This exhibition launches our commemorative year with a slice of history sampled from the last three decades through publications, ephemera and documentation. It takes a tentative and subjective view of Te Uru’s extensive archives to approach the story of West Auckland as a place for risk-taking, and the gallery as a thriving site for contemporary practices, where many important artists have taken significant formative steps.

19 November 2016 — 26 February 2017  |  See exhibition detail

A Table of One's Own: The Creative Life of Anne McCahon

Trained in the 1930s, Anne McCahon (nee Hamblett – 1915-1993) emerged as part of a lively South Island art scene, often venturing into the countryside on painting trips with fellow artists Doris Lusk, Toss and Edith Woollaston, and her soon-to-be husband, Colin.

19 November 2016 — 26 February 2017  |  See exhibition detail

Gregor Kregar: Lost World Glass

Over summer, our front window space will be taken over by works from Gregor Kregor’s Lost World series, as well as escaping into the gallery. Based in New Lynn, Kregar is known for works that playfully question our understanding of objects through scale, repetition and materiality.

2 December 2016 — 12 February 2017  |  See exhibition detail

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