This November’s selection is buzzing with creativity and introspection.
At Artspace Aotearoa, Permissions pushes artistic boundaries, while Zara Dolan’s Pulse at Sanderson Contemporary dances with abstract expression. Neal Palmer’s Connections at Föenander Galleries invites you to lose yourself in nature’s embrace, and Veronica Herber’s Making My Way Home at Melanie Roger Gallery adds an atmospheric, delicate touch.
ARTSPACE AOTEAROA
Permissions
Yana Dombrowsky-M’Baye, Dayle Palfreyman, August Ward
On until – 21 December
The Chartwell Trust New Commissions programme is a keystone event in the Artspace Aotearoa calendar. The exhibition presents commissioned artwork by three emerging artists living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. This comes after a year of mentorship and support from senior artists.
In Permissions the artists are navigating the fluid role of the “emerging artist”, which affords an agility that allows them to occupy and trespass artist-run, public, and commercial spaces. Through film, sculpture, and painting, the artists in this exhibition explore what values guide them through their practice and through the world at large.
292 Karangahape Road Tāmaki Makaurau
SANDERSON CONTEMPORARY
Pulse
Zara Dolan
12 November – 8 December
Sanderson is pleased to present the exhibition Pulse, featuring a new suite of works by award-winning printmaker Zara Dolan. Drawing from abstract expressionist techniques, the mark-making is both deliberate and spontaneous, heavily influenced by the artist’s choice of colours and the intricacies of the printing process. Swirling motifs extend purposefully off the page, suggesting their continuation beyond the paper’s edge.
Zara Dolan is an Irish-born artist, based in Ōtautahi Christchurch, working with one-off monotype prints created on a traditional printmaking press. Dolan completed her master’s in fine arts at the University of Canterbury (ILAM) in 2021. In 2024 she won the Print Merit Award in the New Zealand Painting and Print Awards.
Osborne Lane 2 Kent Street Newmarket
FÖENANDER GALLERIES
Connections
Neal Palmer
On until – 14 November
Connections explores our relationship with the montane forests of Aotearoa – and the sense of inner wellbeing and measurable physical reaction we have to these environments. With a focus on Auckland’s west coast, Palmer reflects the complexity of these forest environments by creating emotive forms of nature.
Neal Palmer is one of New Zealand’s most celebrated botanical painters, known for his larger scale works of native fauna. Neal Palmer has a BA Hons in Fine Art from Trent University in the UK and settled in New Zealand in 1998. Coming to terms with the natural environment of his new home, the artist engaged in painting again, finding a strong affinity with Aotearoa’s unique plant life.
1 Faraday Street, Parnell
MELANIE ROGER GALLERY
Making My Way Home
Veronica Herber
14 November – 7 December
New work by Veronica Herber – her first solo exhibition with Melanie Roger Gallery.
“Veronica Herber uses torn washi tape and graphite to create a visual space that feels smoky, shifting, mysterious and almost cosmic. The work could borrow an alternative title from the famous book of aesthetics by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki – In Praise of Shadows”.
– Justin Paton, Senior Curator, International Art, Art Gallery of NSW, 2024
Veronica Herber, a Tāmaki Makaurau-based artist, has exhibited extensively in Aotearoa and internationally. Her work has featured four times at Sculpture by the Sea (Sydney) and three times at Sculpture on the Gulf (Waiheke), with installations in Mexico and Cuba. In 2015, she received the Arts Trust New Zealand Sculptor Award. Herber’s works on paper are part of the Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, The Arts House Trust, and various private collections across New Zealand.
444 Karangahape Rd, Newton
