Thursday 28 August 2025
This summer, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki presents a major international exhibition highlighting diverse artistic voices from the United States, spanning from 1945 to the present day.
Opening Saturday 8 November, Pop to Present: American Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts brings together 52 compelling works reflecting eight decades of extraordinary artistic experimentation and cultural transformation in one of the world’s largest countries. The exhibition includes abstract paintings, vibrant Pop canvases and hyper-detailed photorealist compositions along with Minimalist sculptures, richly textured pieces inspired by craft and domestic traditions, and contemporary figurative works that explore questions of identity, power and representation.
Showcasing 28 works by women and African American and Indigenous artists, the exhibition places well-known names in conversation with artists from diverse backgrounds to offer a broad and inclusive overview of recent American art. Artists featured in this comprehensive survey include Benny Andrews, Thornton Dial, Roslyn Drexler, Elaine de Kooning, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Sam Gilliam, Philip Guston, Barkley L. Hendricks, Norman Lewis, Virgil Ortiz, Howardena Pindell, Jackson Pollock, Martin Puryear, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Mark Rothko, Kiki Smith, Clyfford Still, and Andy Warhol.
“Experimenting with new materials while responding to the cultural and technological shifts of their time, the artists featured in Pop to Present challenged America’s social and artistic norms in ways that are still meaningful today,” says Kenneth Brummel, Curator, International Art, Auckland Art Gallery. “The exhibition also presents a large number of works by artists rarely seen in this part of the world, making this a significant cultural event for Tāmaki Makaurau and Oceania more broadly.”
Standouts in the exhibition include a vibrant colour-field abstraction by Alma Thomas, an iconic Pop landscape by Roy Lichtenstein, and Andy Warhol’s Triple Elvis (1963).
“We are proud to share the overall breadth of the VMFA collection, and in particular the importance of the Sydney and Frances Lewis collection that anchors it, with the New Zealand audience,” says exhibition curators Sarah Powers and Alexis Assam, Regenia A. Perry Assistant Curator of Global and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Pop to Present is organised by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia, and is supported by the Auckland Art Gallery Foundation.
Exhibition details
Pop to Present: American Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
Saturday 8 November 2025–Sunday 15 March 2026
Co-ordinating curator: Kenneth Brummel
Tickets will go on sale on 6 October at 9am on the Gallery’s website: Adults (New Zealanders) $29.50, Adults (International tourists) $34.50, Members FREE, Concessions $25.50. Children 12 and under FREE (must be with an accompanying adult).