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Events

Exploring the relationship between tākata and whenua – people and land – through Aotearoa New Zealand’s art history.

This expansive and unmissable exhibition explores the fundamental role whenua plays in the visual language and identity of Aotearoa. Acknowledging Māori as takata whenua, the first peoples to call this land home, themes of kaitiakitaka, colonisation, environmentalism, land use, migration, identity and belonging are considered through collection works, new acquisitions and exciting commissions.

Huikaau – where currents meet celebrates the past, present, and future of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery collection – Aotearoa’s first civic collection of art, which was established in Ōtepoti Dunedin in 1884. This exhibition upholds the stories and ideas carried within the collection, welcomes new arrivals, and continues to work in partnership to bring Māori and indigenous perspectives to the fore.

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‘Te Paparahi Toi Māori’ the Auckland Art Walk guide, which brings Māori culture and history to life in the city’s public spaces for Aucklanders and tourists to explore.

Hautāmiro (2025) is an installation by Mataaho Collective, which is led by the ancestral narratives of Tokohurunuku, Tokohururangi, Tokohurumawake and Tokohuruatea, the four winds, or the pillars of the sky. The four were children of Huruteaarangi, an atua of the winds who sent her offspring to the edges of the sky to stand as pou that separated Ranginui and Papatūānuku. Inspired by the dynamic visual language of hukahuka whakarākei, the adornments of customary kākahu, Hautāmiro weaves together materials and techniques in an installation that celebrates adaptation, experimentation and mātauranga Māori across generations.

Taimoana | Coastlines explores the art of Aotearoa New Zealand, locating it within Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, the wider Pacific region. Taking the concept of the coast, or shoreline, as a starting point, the exhibition navigates a sea of ideas, offering multiple perspectives on New Zealand art through a selection of works from the collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.

This beautiful and thought-provoking exhibition is a celebration of pioneering artist Robyn Kahukiwa (Ngāti Porou, Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, Ngāti Konohi, Te Whānau-a-Ruataupare).

Robyn’s artistic contributions over recent decades span the changing cultural and political landscape of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum and Gallery is proud to host this selection of artworks. They provide not only beauty and strength but inroads to maatauranga, with Maaori accounts given proper currency and weight.  

The title 'Tohunga Mahi Toi' refers to Robyn’s status and expertise as an artist, valued here and internationally. Her work has become an alternate visual rendering of Aotearoa’s history, through the lens of a Māori woman.

“Let us acclaim Robyn Kahukiwa. Let us celebrate her art. Let us celebrate the weaving of whakapapa and whānau that she presents us, and entwined with that, always the raising of the wide-reaching capabilities of women. Let us celebrate her gift and her great determination.”

- Roma Potiki (Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa), exhibition curator.

Robyn Kahukiwa: Tohunga Mahi Toi is developed and toured by The New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata, in partnership with Te Manawa Museum.

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Everybody has shoes – but what do they say about the person that wears them. From sneakerheads to haute couture fanatics, people all over the world have had a fascination with collecting these utilitarian-turned highly desirable objects. Well-Heeled invites you to explore the personal stories, special moments and celebrated events told through the diverse tastes of three Aotearoa New Zealand foot-wear devotees.

📸 United Nude, Delta Wedge Boot, Collection of Lisa Reihana

Toi Whakaata / Reflections brings together a focused selection of works by esteemed Māori sculptor Fred Graham (Ngāti Korokī Kahukura, Tainui b.1928). Reflecting on Graham’s art practice of over 70 years, this exhibition includes significant works made between 1965 and 2013, with an emphasis on the artist’s small-scale freestanding sculptures and relief works. The exhibited pieces demonstrate the development of Graham’s distinctive visual language, which intersects Māori and European art traditions and combines wood, stone and stainless steel.

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📸 Washbowl of Sorrow, 2004,, Courtesy of Waikato Raupatu Lands Trust/Visual Arts, Waikato Museum

From dazzling UV-light installations to delicate work in harakeke, experience the art of Maureen Lander (Ngāpuhi, Te Hikutu, Pākehā). Lander is one of News Zealand's foremost expert on raranga and a master weaver herself.

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📸 Maarten Holl.

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The works in this exhibition experiment with langugae, it's expression, and its effects. In their decades-long practices, Himid and Parekōwhai have scrutinised their respective socio-political contexts to explore the possibilities of identification and misrecognition. In their wide-ranging work, both artists have grappled with identity and how the languages of visual art can play an essential role in enlarging societal conversation on participation and representation.

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📸 Maarten Holl.

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Two monumental artworks - one made from burnt timber, the other from fired clay. An unmissable opportunity to encounter two icons of contemporary Māori art.

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📸 Jane Harris. Te Papa

He Tukutuku Auahatanga presents new and existing collaborative installations conceived by Dr. Maureen Lander MNZM (Ngāpuhi, Te Hikutū) and made with community through processes of relational and intergenerational knowledge transmission and regeneration.

A celebrated multi-media artist, Lander is well known for her fibre installations that are inextricably interwoven with the location, context, and community for which her works are created. Across this exhibition, she weaves together concepts, images and materials that explore enduring relationships between people, place, and material culture.

Over 100 artists have been involved in the making of He Tukutuku Auahatanga with Lander as the lead artist. Through this approach Lander embraces the contingent meaning, and ephemeral nature of site-responsive installation art and art making with other people. This embrace of ephemerality as inevitable, reflects an understanding of weaving as an art that is intrinsically entwined with rangahau—or the pursuit of knowledge—the continuity of which rests in the hands and minds of the people.

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Vanessa Edwards returns to Tāhuna Queenstown, supported by members of the Toi Whakaata - Māori Print Collective, Alexis Neal, Jasmine Horton and Tessa Russell, to honour her mother and explore the role of pattern within visual culture. Exhibition Opening: Saturday 14 June, 11:00am

To call outward is to expel breath from within - like a karanga during a powhiri or a wailing at a tangi. An outward expression acknowledging or responding to an external catalyst. To call inward is to receive a message into the self - like an internal voice, sometimes a whisper and other times a deafening, chaotic cry.

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Curated by Cecelia Kumeroa (Whanganui/ Te Ātihaunui-a-Pāpārangi), Puanga is a time for wānanga, connection, remembrance and is a central theme for our exhibition titled Kanapa ki Runga – Kanapa ki Raro. Kanapa ki runga references the celestial realm. The night sky is a connection to both the past and the future. Kanapa ki raro grounds us in the earthly domain and places us in the present. A selection of local and national artists have been called to create works with this poetic phrase as inspiration.

This exhibition is a way for each of the 14 featured artists to communicate their own aspirations or to create a work about past events that may have impacted their lives. The convergence of past, present and future yields a resonant beauty for Puanga, a time of inspiration.

Exhibiting artists:

Aaron Te Rangiao Gardiner Ngāti Apa, Te Ātihaunui-a-Pāpārangi, Ngāti Ruanui

Robert Jahnke  Ngai Taharora, Te Whanau a Iritekura, Te Whanau a Rakairo o Ngāti Porou

Isiaha Barlow  Uenuku, Ngāti Tahu-Ngāti Whaoa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Tūwharetoa

Israel Tangaroa Birch  Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Rakaipaaka, Ngāi Tawake ki te Waoku

Maiangi Waitai Te Ātihaunui a Pāpārangi, Ngā Wairiki, Ngāti Apa, Tuwharetoa, Rangitāne

Maihi Potaka-Butler Ngāti Hauiti, Ngāti Manawa, Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi, Te Āti Awa

Matthew McIntyre Wilson  Taranaki Iwi, Tītahi, Ngā Māhanga

Melanie Tangaere Baldwin  Ngāti Porou

Natasha Keating Ngati Tūwharetoa, Ngāi Tuhoe, Te Āti-Haunui-a-Pāpārangi

Ngahina Hohaia Taranaki, Te Ātiawa, Parihaka papakāinga

Rangi Kipa Te Ātiawa, Taranaki, Ngāti Tama ki te Tauihu

Russ Flatt Ngāti Kahungunu ki te Wairoa, Ngāti Hinemihi, Whanganui

Ta Piri o Te Rangi Pirikahu  Ngaa Rauru Kiitahi, Whanganui

Te Ururangi Rowe  Ngāti Uenuku, Ngāti Tuwharetoa, Ngāti Raukawa, Rarotonga, Aitutaki

On show with exhibiting artists from the collection

Ahu Te Ua

Cliff Whiting

Colleen Lenihan

Fred Graham

Hemi MacGregor

Marilyn Webb

Ralph Hotere

Shane Cotton

Wii Taepa

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This exhibition featuring work from Ōtautahi Weavers Collective supported by work from some of Kāi Tahu senior weavers and copper wire specialty weaver will be held in Te Pito Huarewa / Southbase Gallery and Waruwarutū-Ngā Pounamu Māori collection space, Tuakiri | Identity, Level 2, Tūranga from Saturday 21 June until Sunday 31 August 2025.

The exhibition brings together contemporary Indigenous artwork from Turtle Island (Canada), Aotearoa (New Zealand), and many First Peoples nations of Australia. Featuring over 20 artists, including newly commissioned pieces, Naadohbii: To Draw Water illustrates an axis of solidarity between First Peoples nations across the globe around environmental, political and cultural connections to water.

He Tāwharau Mātaatua is a group exhibition honouring the creative practices of ringatoi who whakapapa to iwi in Mātaatua rohe.

This exhibition pays tribute to the amo from the Ngāti Pūkeko wharenui, Awanuiārangi — now standing at the entrance of our gallery, gifted to Te Kooti at the time of his pardon. These taonga carry with them the legacy of shelter and protection offered by Mātaatua iwi during times of immense political and cultural tension.

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The Stones Remember, a solo exhibition by contemporary Māori artist and researcher Sarah Hudson.Exploring her connection to Moutohorā and developed in parallel with her time in Japan’s Setouchi Triennale, this body of work looks at the space between longing and belonging. Using gathered natural earth pigments, Sarah's work honours the resilience of whenua and the stories carried through stone.Hudson’s multidisciplinary practice reflects a profound engagement with whakapapa, mātauranga Māori, and the intergenerational transmission of knowledge. These new works explore the space between longing and belonging — where stones become vessels for memory, resilience, and reconnection.

Flaming Star is where cowboys kiss, saddles get ruffled, and bolo ties come undone. It’s where ‘the West’ gets wrangled into wild, unruly terrain. The exhibition borrows its title from Elvis Presley’s 1960 song (and Western film) Flaming Star—a crooning cowboy ballad about masculinity and fate. When the King of glam sang “when I ride, I feel that flaming star,” the lyrics practically begged to be reimagined as a queer anthem of rhinestone-studded fantasy.

These artworks from Aotearoa, Malaysia and the Philippines all emerge from a shared family of Austronesian languages to articulate experiences of colonial impact from the distinct vantage points of the region. In this exhibition, collectivity and language are considered tools for resistance. If language shapes how meaning is made, what conversations can be had between groups who share a root tongue?

This exhibition is presented in association with Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga Hastings Art Gallery and with the support of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.

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A group exhibition of artworks from across Aotearoa and Australia.

The National Contemporary Art Award was launched in 2000 by the Waikato Society of Arts and has been facilitated and hosted by Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery since 2006.

The prestigious competition’s blind-judging process keeps entrant identities confidential, enabling the guest judge to focus solely on the art.

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A roomful of industrial-scale beams folded into unexpected and compelling new forms.

In the crisp white cube of a gallery space, new structures emerge. Powder-coated aluminium beams are folded into strange new shapes, until their factory-finished uniformity gives way to something unexpected: fleeting, imperfect glimpses of the natural world. Abandoning the monumental for something more open-ended, renowned Aotearoa New Zealand artist Peter Robinson (Kāi Tahu) plays with line, form and shadow to construct a spectacular, supersized installation that visitors can walk past, around and through.

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Experience the bold brilliance of Toi Koru, the first major survey exhibition of paintings by Māori master of colour and kōwhaiwhai, Dr Sandy Adsett  MNZM (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Pāhauwera).

Spanning six decades, this remarkable exhibition traces the trajectory of Adsett’s painting practice from the 1960s to today - including a striking new series painted especially for the exhibition.

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Pae o Te Rangi presents four celebrated Māori artists, whose work allows us to view the world through a visual language that speaks across generations and traditional practices.

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Born and based in Ōtautahi, acclaimed artist Darryn George is of Ngāpuhi descent. His paintings reflect the breadth of his cultural roots, finding their anchorage in his Christian faith and his Māori heritage. He has primarily worked with geometric abstraction, often executed with immaculate finish, but over the past few years tones have undulated, texture has increasingly replaced smoothness, colours have brightened, illusory space has been suggested and abstraction has even given way to loose figuration. By pushing the boundaries of his methodology – particularly in the recent Garden of Eden series which were drawn in bright pastel across vibrant white canvas – he has opened the door to creative expansion and a new direction.

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Turumeke Harrington’slatest exhibition is a collaborative project with her ten-year-old daughter PiaHill. A suite of paintings made by Harrington with acrylic and whenua fromaround the motu feature urns or uku reminiscent of 18th Century Jasperware fromthe English pottery manufacturer Wedgewood. But rather than traditional reliefdecorations depicting neoclassical designs, Harrington’s forms are decoratedwith characters from Minecraft and Avatar World, bats, fried chicken, andTaylor Swift lyrics (all punctuated by Harrington’s trademark politicalcynicism). “It is things that I like that my māmā spent hours working on, madeout of dirt and clay,” says Hill.

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Turumeke Harrington, I'm  not a...but I do...(detail), 2025, acrylic and whenua on canvas,  610mm x 410mm

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Voyager is an Australian exclusive survey exhibition celebrating the diversity of Reihana's internationally acclaimed art practice. The exhibition will include a major new site specific, outdoor installation that will see the artist adorn the entrance of the gallery with an artwork created with hu

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Ngununggula Retford Park Southern Highlands Regional Gallery

1 Art Gallery Lane, Bowral New South Wales 2576, Australia

Installations presents major artworks beyond the gallery booth, engaging with the distinctive architecture and atmosphere of Carriageworks. Curated by José Da Silva, Director of UNSW Galleries, the 2025 edition features nine ambitious projects that celebrate artists who experiment with scale, materiality, and immersive experiences.

Carriageworks 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh, Sydney NSW 2015, Australia

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This exhibition celebrates the diversity of taniwha. They are shapeshifters, oceanic guides, leaders, adversaries, guardians and tricksters who have left their marks on the Aotearoa landscape.

Whāia te Taniwha also responds to the impact of colonisation on Māori knowledge systems by celebrating the deep and varied presence of taniwha within te ao Māori,” says Cull.

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