It’s spring and Auckland’s galleries are bursting with delicious visual delights to titillate your thirsty spring-time eyes. There’s plenty to choose from, get out there and enjoy!
Willow Tree Gallery
Daisy Chain
Artists: Tanja McMillan, Hannah Maurice, Ophelia Jones, Caroline Faigan, Benedict Maurice, Laura Williams, Ryder Jones.
1 September – 7 September
Daisy Chain is an artist-initiated collaboration of friends and family. The idea is to create something other than the sum of its parts. As flowers are threaded by fingers to form a chain, the works of the artists are linked together through the theme of the daisy and the energy of participation. A circle of flower lovers.
The intention of this collective is sweet and simple artistic expression inspired by nature, exploration of the daisy’s symbolic associations within the context of each artist’s personal practice.
Hilltop Road, Hakaru, Northland. More info on Instagram @daisychainshow
Foenander Galleries
Hauraki: Northerly Wind
Roger Mortimer
26 August – 15 September
Mortimer’s most recent work draws specifically from the 14th-century epic, Dante’s Divine Comedy. Graphic imagery lifted from illustrated medieval manuscripts is set against a familiar backdrop of local nautical charts, which guide us – with their markings and warnings – through Mortimer’s enigmatic and fantastical landscapes.
Roger Mortimer graduated from the Elam School of Fine Arts in 1999. In 2014 he was the Paramount Award Winner in the Wallace Art awards In 2017, a survey exhibition of his work, Dilemma Hill, was shown in public galleries in Wellington and Auckland.
455 Mt Eden Road, Tāmaki Makaurau. More info at foenandergalleries.co.nz
Gow Langsford Gallery
The Open Road
Max Gimblett
24 August – 17 September
Max Gimblett’s practice is rich with varied influences and philosophies, from abstract expressionism to Eastern and Western spiritual beliefs. Known for creating distinct canvas shapes, such as the quatrefoil, he expresses his energy through painting and continues to experiment with form, colour, and precious metals in his practice today. Bridging cultures and spiritualities, his work is based on concepts of consciousness and enlightenment, which manifest in brightly coloured gestural abstractions.
28-36 Wellesley Street East, Tāmaki Makaurau. More info at gowlangsfordgallery.co.nz
Bergman Gallery
To’a Motu
Benjamin Work
27 August – 17 September
Throughout history Tongan warriors were the vanguard of many conflicts across Moana Oceania, hired by chiefs of other islands with blood ties to Tonga, for their wars and internal conflicts. To’a Motu – or Island Warrior – sees artist Benjamin Work, a descendant of these warriors, drawing on the connectivity between the sacred islands of the Pacific and Aotearoa New Zealand. Exploring the iconography found carved into cultural treasures such as ‘akau tau (war clubs), his paintings and sculptures have sought to find new spaces and ways for audiences to engage with Tonga’s visual culture.
3/582 Karangahape Road, (Gallery entrance via 2 Newton Road) Tāmaki Makaurau. More info at bergmangallery.com
Parnell Gallery
New Works
Neil Driver
6 September – 20 September
Driver is a painter of light. From landscape to still life, his work evokes serenity, calmness and effortless grace. Painting in a mixture of traditional and contemporary styles that is uniquely his own, Driver often depicts details that are generally overlooked by the human eye. This gifted artist brings life and beauty to the simplest objects, such as a shirt hanging on a chair, a tablecloth or bowl of fruit.
263 Parnell Road, Tāmaki Makaurau. More info at parnellgallery.co.nz
Artspace Aotearoa
Te Moana Meridian
Sam Hamilton
20 August – 29 October 2022
Te Moana Meridian is formed around a radical proposal to the United Nations: to relocate the prime meridian from Greenwich, London, to Te Moana-Nui-ā-Kiwa. An installation with five-channel video, Te Moana Meridian features an international cast of performers, artists and practitioners. Through a polyphony of tactics the exhibition proposes a practical means for redressing this skewing of global diplomacy. Sam Hamilton/Sam Tam Ham is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher from Tāmaki Makaurau.
292 Karangahape Road, Tāmaki Makaurau. More info at artspace-aotearoa.nz
