It’s March and the art scene is a hive of activity with a post deluge hum in the air. This month kicks off with The Aotearoa Art Fair, running from the 1-6 March at the Cloud, outside of which, the gallerists are making the most of the twilight warmth this autumn month brings. The art bees are out, the flowers are open and the pollen is sweet. Go get some.
Foenander Galleries
New Wave
Matthew Carter
8-31 March
New Wave brings together a body of the artist’s most recent paintings. The title of the exhibition is drawn from one of the works, which depicts a group of figures crossing a street. One of the figures in the painting appears to be waving at the viewer. This references an earlier work of Carter’s, The Wave, in which a figure captured in paint also appeared to be waving at the viewer. Beyond this, the exhibition title also references French New Wave cinema, which Carter admires. This inventive style of cinematic modernism includes the work of well-known filmmakers such as Jean-Luc Goddard.
455 Mt Eden Road, Mt Eden.
Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tamaki
Light from Tate: 1700’s to Now
Various Artists
On until 25 June
Curated from the collections of Tate, UK, and exclusive to the gallery, this exhibition features nearly 100 artworks by celebrated international artists from the 18th century to the present. It tells the story of how light has captivated artists over time and across media including painting, photography and installation. Featuring the historical paintings of visionary artists JMW Turner and John Constable, the impressionistic brushstrokes of Claude Monet, sensorial colour painted by Wassily Kandinsky, Bridget Riley and Josef Albers, and the experimental photographs of the 1920s.
Cnr Kitchener and Wellesley Streets, Auckland CBD
Te Tuhi
Who can think, what can think
Group Show
On until 7 May
Who can think, what can think is an exhibition that challenges definitions of ‘intelligence’ in relation to human and non-human cognition by embracing understandings of biodiversity and neurodiversity. To question ‘who and what can think’ requires us to confront the troubling history of categorising intelligence that has led to certain groups of people being excluded, controlled and killed, and plants, animals and whole ecosystems being exploited and destroyed. This exhibition groups a range of artworks that help to address this complex history and to question how these issues influence us today.
13 Reeves Road, Pakuranga.
Bergman Gallery
Pride and Prejudice, Part 1
Group Show
On until 18 March
The exhibition series, Pride and Prejudice, Parts 1-3 brings together a collection of stories by Queer and Pacific artists who live, like many of us, with prejudice. They are narrated in painted, sculptural and photographic form. They are communicated with love, humour and gravity. They are not victim impact statements, nor are they a condemnation or judgment of others, these stories function as a stocktake of the reality we live in, and purposefully reflect that we believe the fight for equality in all of its forms, is far from over. This exhibition is part of the Auckland Pride Festival 2023 and includes artists; Heather Straka, Oliver Cain, Luke Thurgate, Lucas Grogan, Louie Bretaña, Raymond Sagapolutele, and Sione Monū.
3/582 Karangahape Road (Entrance 2 Newton Road), Grey Lynn.
Studio One Toi Tu
Gap [黄贤 filler
Cindy Huang, Sung Hwan, Bobby Park & Ruby White
On until 30 March
Cindy Huang, Sung Hwan Bobby Park and Ruby White share hands parched from clay; using ceramic as a means for narration, negotiation and navigation. With converging practices in Tāmaki Makaurau and elsewhere, this assembly of realities become a scattering of seeds_ a sowing of 悃_ a mingling of fragrance_
Aiming to subvert traditional ideas around ceramics and explore how artists blur the boundaries between art and craft, the exhibition delves into the idea of how the body exists in a liminal space between past and present, belonging and alienation.
238 Karangahape Road, Newton.
Sanderson Contemporary
Descendants
Julie Cromwell
On until 12 March
Descendants is a new suite of works developed from award-winning ceramicist Julie Cromwell. The show presents the artists’ ongoing research into the historical linage of clay and ceramics, as well as a recent exploration into funerary ware.
Osborne Lane, 2 Kent Street, Newmarket.
Trish Clark Gallery
Divinations
Christine Webster
On until 1 April
Comprising 14 photographs and four videos, Divinations is a poignant exhibition that holds in tension the body’s earthly flesh with lofty themes of religious ecstasy, transcendence and death alongside quotidian details of daily life.
142 Great North Road, Grey Lynn.
