Auckland Art Gallery to Launch New Triennial

Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmakihas established a new triennial, the inaugural edition of which is set to open July 6. TitledAotearoa Contemporary, the event will provide “ongoing representation and pathways for new artistic voices, bolstering the future resilience of New Zealand art,” according to gallery director Kirsten Lacy. Admission to the exhibition will be free.

The triennial’s first iteration will focus on artists who have never shown at the gallery before. Twenty-seven artists are set to participate, with twenty-two new projects in an array of media— including painting, textiles, sculpture, ceramics, photography, and performance—on view. Among the artists presenting work are Māori fabric artist Maungarongo Te Kawa, Tāmaki Makaurau–based ceramics and performance artist Sung Hwan Bobby Park, New Zealand art collective The Killing, Nigerian-born painter Ruth Ige, and siblings Qianye and Qianhe Lin. A program of talks is also planned.

“Aotearoa Contemporary reveals a new cluster of artists who work afresh with ritual and storytelling, mythology, rhythm, indigenous space and materials,” said Natasha Conland, the gallery’s senior curator of contemporary art, in a statement. “There is also a special emphasis on art’s relationship with choreography through the commission of four dance works.”

The triennial is supported by the Auckland Art Gallery Foundation, the Chartwell Trust, and local hapū (subtribe) Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei.

“Our tupuna [ancestor] Apihai Te Kawau gifted 3,000 acres of land on the Waitematā on 18th September in 1840 to become a city which welcomed people, cultures and ideas from afar,” said Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Trust deputy chair Ngarimu Blair in a statement. “Our relationship with Auckland Art Gallery is founded in the shared goal to foster the arts reflective of our multicultural community in Aotearoa.”