Local Atlas: Contemporary New Zealand and Australian art

This exhibition represents some key contemporary works of art in the collections of the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and the Chartwell Trust. Some common themes are immediately apparent - a direct response to nature and environment; and a preoccupation with knowledge and cultural identity.

While the Gallery is renowned for its collections of New Zealand art, it also holds one of the key collections of Australian art. In the last two generations the contacts between New Zealand and Australia have become very close in all forms of artistic expression.

The great maritime explorer James Cook was the first person to widely reveal the geographic proximity of both lands and to note that the indigenous people of both places were entirely different. Cook showed where New Zealand and Australia fitted together on the world's atlas. This exhibition seeks to reveal each artist's affirmation of their cultural locality.