OPEN DAILY: 10:00am – 4:30pm
Except Christmas Day and Good Friday
FREE ENTRY
Shed 11, 60 Lady Elizabeth Lane
Wellington Waterfront 6011
OPEN DAILY: 10:00am – 4:30pm
Except Christmas Day and Good Friday
FREE ENTRY
Shed 11, 60 Lady Elizabeth Lane
Wellington Waterfront 6011
This exhibition documents the journey one takes when settling in Aotearoa from elsewhere, away from the notion of home and in search of belonging.
What began as a collection of portraits recording individual migrant journeys, A Migrant’s Path, has evolved into a fictional series, No. 13. Together these photographs provide a candid depiction of migration stories, colourism, mental health, and cultural identity.
Image: Abhi Chinniah, The Portal, photography. 2024
From the early 1930s Toss Woollaston’s approach to portrait painting was radical, resulting in what Jill Trevelyan calls “New Zealand’s first modernist portrait”, Figures from Life, 1936. His portraiture was unlike anything produced in the country to this time.
Image: M T Woollaston, Figures from Life, 1936. Oil and charcoal (627 x 478 mm) Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of Colin McCahon, 1954
A picture is a whole world unto itself.
Step beyond the frame and see what you find. Background Matters asks what can be revealed when we view the sitter of a portrait in the expanded field of their surroundings. In bringing the background to the fore, this exhibition subverts the hierarchy of subject and setting to consider the portraiture of Aotearoa New Zealand from a fresh vantage point.
Nicolette Page, Carmen, Oil on board, 2012
This exhibition will focus on three aspects of Lynch’s artistic career: portraits painted for competitions (for instance she entered the famous Australian Archibald Portrait Prize four times), controversial portraits (her portrait of Mayor Percy Dowse, Lower Hutt was taken down at the Dowse but in 1984 the director was told to reinstate it against his dislike for it) and portraits of her students, of which there are many.
Julia Lynch, Self-portrait, c.1924, (private collection).
The Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award is a competition that encourages young Maaori artists to create portraits of their tupuna (ancestors) in any medium. The Award is hosted and administered by Te Pūkenga Whakaata the New Zealand Portrait Gallery in honour of the late Maaori King, Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII.
The Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award provides young Māori artists with the opportunity to showcase their talents on the national stage, while also playing an important role in recording and celebrating tūpuna (ancestors) and their stories.
The Award culminates with an exhibition of finalist artworks at The New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata in Wellington over a three month period, timed to coincide with Matariki. Judging of the shortlisted works is undertaken by a distinguished panel at the opening of the exhibition.
The inaugural Award competition was held in 2021. The next award will be held in 2025.
First Prize: $20,000
Runner up: $2,500
People’s Choice: $2,500
Join Philip Woollaston and curator Dr Jane Davidson-Ladd to discuss the portraits of Toss Woollaston, New Zealand's first modernist portrait painter.
M T Woollaston, Figures from Life, 1936. Oil and charcoal (627 x 478 mm). Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of Colin McCahon, 1954
Have a go at portraiture in a relaxed setting with our free monthly drawing sessions.
The Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award is a biennial competition that provides emerging Māori artists with the opportunity to showcase their talents on the national stage, while also playing an important role in recording and celebrating tūpuna and their stories.
Image: Tia Barrett, A Time Capsule of Aroha, photography (finalist)
Robyn Kahukiwa’s artworks have made a difference to Māori. They have provided not only beauty and strength but inroads into our mātauranga, and the multi-layered, inter-generational and ever-evolving stories that are part of our cultural landscape. Her work has become an alternate visual rendering of Aotearoa’s history, through the lens of a Māori woman.
Image: Robyn Kahukiwa, Portrait of a Woman, 1986, Private collection, Wellington
The Adam Portraiture Award is New Zealand’s premier portrait prize.
Image: Tessa Meyer, Sunshine, oil on board (finalist)