Update: please note Darcell Apelu's Carry Me With You is now scheduled to open mid-November. 

Wednesday 13 September 2023

A major exhibition by artist and couturier Guo Pei, two major commissions by New Zealand artists Darcell Apelu and Simon Denny, three new exhibitions drawn from the Gallery’s collections, as well as a new interactive art-making experience in Te Aka Matua, the Gallery’s Creative Learning Centre, open at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki in coming months.

Director Kirsten Lacy is delighted to announce Auckland Art Gallery’s spring and summer exhibitions.

‘The Gallery is renewing collection and temporary exhibition displays across the building over the spring period with a wide array of exceptional art experiences. The exclusive exhibition, Guo Pei: Fashion, Art, Fantasy 郭培：时装之幻梦 celebrates one of the world’s most renowned couturiers. Guo Pei’s gowns and garments unite high fashion, remarkable artistry, and an imagination with no limits. As part of this exhibition, we’re delighted to present the Yellow Queen gown that Rihanna famously wore at the 2015 Met Gala.’

‘We’re also proud to showcase new commissions by two outstanding New Zealand artists. In October, we will unveil Darcell Apelu’s sculptural installation Carry Me With You on the North Terrace and into December, Simon Denny will present his largest project in New Zealand in some years in the Gallery’s North Atrium.’

‘Our exhibition programme also includes significant presentations of the Gallery’s collection, showcasing some of the greatest artists of our era and from throughout history. I’m particularly excited to share recent acquisitions showcased for the first time, alongside visitor favourites.’

‘In Te Aka Matua Creative Learning Centre, we will open Ngā Pakiaka: Like the roots of a tree, a new experience that will enable visitors of all ages the opportunity to explore art and interconnected environmental themes through hands-on making.’

Coming up at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki:

Guo Pei: Fashion, Art, Fantasy 郭培: 时装之幻梦

Opening Saturday 9 December
Members FREE, Adult $24.50, Children under 12 FREE

In this Aotearoa New Zealand exclusive exhibition, experience the extravagance and breath-taking fashion of globally renowned Chinese designer Guo Pei. Drawing on influences from around the world and using extraordinary fabrics and bejewelled embroidery, Guo Pei’s striking garments are truly wearable works of art.

Be transported from the fashion runway into the Gallery to encounter more than 60 of Guo Pei’s unique garments up close. Showcasing exceptional artistry and imagination Guo Pei’s creations could have been conjured from a fairy tale or floated out of a dream.

From billowing dresses adorned with intricate patterns to bodysuits evoking mythical creatures, these outstanding garments demonstrate two decades of artistic output by a designer who takes inspiration from Imperial China, European art and the botanical world. Guo Pei has designed for the political elite, royalty and celebrities, including Rihanna’s 2015 Met Gala Yellow Queen gown – which is included in the exhibition at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.

Guo Pei: Fashion, Art, Fantasy 郭培：时装之幻梦 is organised by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco with significant support from the Asian Couture Federation.

The exhibition is proudly supported by Singapore Airlines, Cordis Hotels, Auckland Art Gallery Foundation, Omnigraphics and Asia New Zealand Foundation.

 

North Terrace Commission – Darcell Apelu: Carry Me With You

Opening Saturday 28 October
FREE

Tauranga Moana-based artist Darcell Apelu (Niuean, Pākehā, Te Āti Awa) presents Carry Me With You, a sculptural installation for the North Terrace. The work expands on concepts of intergenerational knowledge transmission, a foundation within Apelu’s practice, and takes poutama, a stepped design which emanates from te ao Maori (Māori world view) as its starting point. Carry Me With You reinterprets and inverts poutama to embody the notion of tuakana-teina, where knowledge is transferred and flows both ways between the tuākana (elder) and teina (mentee) and across generations.

Carry Me With You is proudly supported by Contemporary Benefactors of the Auckland Art Gallery and Chartwell Trust.

 

North Atrium Commission – Simon Denny

Opening Saturday 2 December
FREE

Internationally renowned New Zealand artist and two-time nominee for the Walters Prize, Simon Denny, will create a new commission for the Gallery’s grand North Atrium.

The commission is proudly supported by Auckland Contemporary Arts Trust and Contemporary Benefactors of the Auckland Art Gallery.

 

Portals & Omens: New Work from the Collection

Opening Saturday 21 October
FREE

Drawn from the Gallery’s contemporary collection, this exhibition contemplates how artists respond to history and the world we inhabit. Portals & Omens: New Work from the Collection tracks artistic practice from home and across the globe with concepts of history and dystopia–an opulent and troubled culture of nature, time and language. Many of the works were made or acquired for the collection during the Covid-19 pandemic and, like Ryan Gander’s small mouse and Berlinde De Bruyckere’s archangel, ask that art reveals a common spirit or the importance of imaginary spaces.

Te Aka Matua | Creative Learning Centre: Ngā Pakiaka: Like the roots of a tree

Opening Saturday 28 October
FREE

Ngā Pakiaka: Like the roots of a tree invites visitors to explore themes related to the environment through hands-on art making. Over two years, the space will focus on four different aspects of the environment – whenua (land), ngā uri o Tāne (the children of Tāne), whānau (people) and tāwharau (shelter) – through the key themes of kaitiakitanga (respect), sustainability and interconnection.

Ngā Pakiaka: Like the roots of a tree is proudly supported by Joyce Fisher Charitable Trust.

Open now: 

Threads of Time: Travel, Trade & Textiles

Exploring the fascinating relationship between art and textiles over 400 years, Threads of Time: Travel, Trade & Textiles weaves new narratives across more than 60 works from the Gallery’s collection. This display in the historic Mackelvie
Gallery shines a spotlight on the sumptuousness of fabric as a material, storyteller and cultural artefact.

Gothic Returns: Fuseli to Fomison

Gothic Returns: Fuseli to Fomison explores the persistent appeal of ‘the gothic’, a broad term that embraces some of the most darkly charismatic imagery ever produced. Drawing upon iconic works from across the collection, the exhibition unites old with new, playfully inviting viewers to enter the ever-enticing dark side of the imagination.