Auckland – Love Your City

Photo credit: Jeremy Toth

I was thrilled to be invited to participate in a selection panel choosing images for the Heart of the City’s ‘Love Your City’ Instagram photo exhibition, on display as part of ARTWEEK (11–20 October) at the rear of the St James Theatre on Lorne St. We also have some of these images on display in the foyer of Auckland Art Gallery.

I liked the title of the show. When I learnt that this exhibition would be named, ‘Love Your City’ I knew that it was a welcome, a direction that says to each and every one of us, ‘we care for and cherish this place’.

I reckon that in ‘Loving Your City’ you are making it a place where people want to be. ‘Love Your City’ is an invocation. It's a motto.

Photo credit: Jeremy Toth

The exhibition is an initiative that uses the delights and terrors of social media – in this case it is the wonderful visual thermometer called Instagram. The exhibition was a delight to select because we looked at 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of the Instagram pics that Heart of the City could draw from in the presentation of their exhibition.

The other selectors on the panel were all colleague curators, Ngahiraka Mason (Indigenous Curator, Māori Art, Auckland Art Gallery), Vera May (Assistant Director at AUT University’s ST PAUL St Gallery) and curator, writer and friend Kolokesa Mahina-Tuai.

Our goal was clear, to choose images that show people who care for this place and its myriad spaces. Themes emerged often and these reinforced ideas that the character of ‘Love Your City’ is people and their families, partners, children and friends.

So, Aucklanders (and visitors alike) I hope you get pleasure and fun from looking at every image!

- Ron Brownson, Senior Curator, New Zealand and Pacific Art

Artworks on loan, October 2013

Lending artworks to other institutions allows us to share our collections with more visitors, not just in Auckland, but also around New Zealand and across the world. As one of the registrars at Auckland Art Gallery, I look after our loans programme, and work with our technicians, conservators and curators to prepare and send our artworks out on loan. I thought I'd share with you some of the artworks from our collections that are currently on loan.

Dowse Art Museum, As Many Structures As I Can: works from the Chartwell Collection

Image credit: Bill Culbert Light Plain, 1997, lamp shades, light bulbs and fittings, Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, 2000, C2000/1/7.1-14 

We’re all really excited about the exhibition at the Dowse opening on 12 October and running until 16 February 2014. It’s called As Many Structures As I Can: works from the Chartwell Collection and features some amazing works from the Chartwell Collection, including Bill Culbert’s major work Light Plain. If you’re going to be in (or near) Wellington between now and February, you should definitely make the trip to the Dowse to see this show! The public programmes look fantastic as well, and if you’re interested in seeing Simon Ingram create a painting or fancy a cuppa with Bill Culbert, check out the Dowse’s website for more details.

Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Hotere and Culbert

Image credit: Bill Culbert, Ralph Hotere, Post Black No.13, 1992, painted window frame, glass, and fluorescent tube, Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, 1992, C1994/1/368

Opening on 12 October at Dunedin Public Art Gallery is a major exhibition of collaborative works by Ralph Hotere and Bill Culbert. Three works from the Chartwell Collection are included in this exhibition:

Post Black, Window #5
Post Black, Window #10
Post Black No.13

See the Dunedin Public Art Gallery's website for details of this exhibition.

Adam Art Gallery, John Panting: Spatial Constructions

Image credit: John Panting Untitled III , 1972, 1973, steel, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased 1976, 1976/51/1

We’ve lent a large sculpture by John Panting to the Adam Art Gallery in Wellington for a major exhibition of Panting’s work, John Panting: Spatial Constructions. The exhibition is curated by Sam Cornish, who is the author of a recent monograph on Panting’s work. For more details, check out the Adam Art Gallery's website.

Adam Art Gallery, State of the art: reproductive prints from the Renaissance to now

Image credit: Francisco de Goya y Lucientes Qué hai que hacer mas? (What more can be done?), c 1816, etching, lavis drypoint, burin and burnisher, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased 1955, 1955/42/9

Also on display at the Adam shortly is an exhibition on the history of reproductive prints. On loan to the Adam for this exhibition is Qué hai que hacer mas?(What more can be done?), by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes.

Tauranga Arts Festival, Public, Private and Pop-Ups

Image credit: Seung Yul Oh The Ability to Blow Themselves Up 2005, single channel digital video, colour, sound, Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, 2005, C2005/1/13

If you’re in Tauranga at the end of October, you might see some video works from the Chartwell collection on display at Sisters Boutique. Public, Private and Pop-Ups is an exhibition at various sites around the city, and features four video works:

Seung Yul Oh, The Ability to Blow Themselves Up
Daniel von Sturmer, Painted Video
Steve Carr, Tyson
Gabriella Mangano and Silvana Mangano, Neon.

Check out their website to find out more about this exhibition.

Te Papa, Nga Toi: Arts Te Papa

Image credit: Petrus van der Velden Three figures in a landscape, c 1874, charcoal, crayon and gouache, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of Morris and Ronald Yock, in memory of their father, 1964, 1964/22

A work on paper by Petrus van der Velden will be on display soon at Te Papa, as part of their Nga Toi: Arts Te Papa series of exhibitions. See information on current and future exhibitions on their website.

City Gallery Wellington, New Revised Edition

Image credit: Nick Austin Fallin', 2006, acrylic and string on board, Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, 2006, C2006/1/14/1

New Revised Edition is an exhibition at City Gallery Wellington featuring paintings by four New Zealand artists. One of the works by Nick Austin on display is Fallin’ from the Chartwell collection. See their website for further details.

MTG Hawke’s Bay, Architecture of the Heart

Image credit: Robyn Kahukiwa Te Whenua, Te Whenua, Engari Kaore He Turangawaewae (Placenta, Land, but Nowhere to Stand), 1987, alkyd and oil on canvas, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased 1988, 1988/32

Hawke’s Bay Museum and Art Gallery have recently re-opened after a major redevelopment and rebranding. Now known as MTG Hawke’s Bay, they have a number of great exhibitions in their fancy new space! If you visit Hawke’s Bay over the summer, you might see a few artworks from the Auckland Art Gallery collection on show in Architecture of the Heart, an exhibition dealing with themes of 'home'.

Robyn Kahukiwa, Te Whenua, Te Whenua, Engari Kaore He Turangawaewae (Placenta, Land, but Nowhere to Stand)
Derrick Cherrie, Retroflex
Neil Dawson, Interior IX

Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, Oceania: Tapa – Kunst und Lebenswelten (Art and Social Landscapes)

Image credit: John Pule Polynesia migration Aotearoa ,1992, acrylic on unstretched canvas, and barkcloth, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased with funds from Reader's Digest New Zealand, 1992, 1992/21

Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, a museum of ethnography in Cologne, Germany, has also recently reopened after a major building development. One of their new special exhibitions is titled Oceania: Tapa – Kunst und Lebenswelten (Art and Social Landscapes). One of the works in the exhibition is Polynesia migration Aotearoa, by John Pule.

More about Auckland Art Gallery's loans programme

If you are interested in finding out more about loans at Auckland Art Gallery, check out the following for more information on borrowing works from the Auckland Art Gallery and Chartwell collections:

Auckland Art Gallery Collection and Policies
Chartwell Collection: how to borrow works

- Fiona Moorhead, Assistant Registrar