Kong is Back
The King Kong attraction at Hollywood park, the first theme park attraction that Peter Jackson’s New Zealand-based f/x shop Weta Digital has created, reopens on July 1 after a devastating fire two years ago….
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Millar’s better life
New Zealand artist Judy Millar, 53, who lives in Auckland and Berlin, is exhibiting at the Hamish Morrison Galerie in the German capital, her first solo show — entitled ‘A Better Life’ — since…
NZ gothic on show
The Queensland Art Gallery’s Gallery of Modern Art is showcasing its substantial collection of contemporary New Zealand art — the largest outside of this country — with an exhibition called the
Walters finalists named
The finalists for this year’s $50,000 Walters Prize are: Dan Arps, Fiona Connor, Saskia Leek and Alex Monteith. Named in honour of the late New Zealand artist, Gordon Walters, the prize was established in…
Latvian leanings
Nelson-based landscape photographer Craig Potton is holding an exhibition of his works at the Foreign Art Museum in Riga Castle, Latvia. The Riga exhibition takes a journey through New Zealand, beginning on the windswept…
Organic as mechanic
Auckland artist Lisa Black mixes taxidermy with machinery some sites calling her method “steampunk” modifying a fawn, a turtle, a duckling and a baby crocodile, transforming the once dead into the “cyborg-seeming”. According to…
Cast for glass
“Internationally respected doyenne” of glass casting Aucklander Ann Robinson is profiled in the Spring 2010 issue of German/English magazine Neues Glas. With no one to consult and no recipes to follow, Robinson was as…
Solid selection
Porirua-born sculptor Michael Parekowhai has been selected to represent New Zealand at the 2011 Venice Biennale. Parekowhai, 42, received the Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award in 2001 and works as an associate…
House of Pallets
Auckland sculptor Aaron McConchie’s Chep pallet installation “c” is on display at Manukau City’s Highbrook Business Park through January 9. The exhibit consists of nine pyramid-like structures that resembles a house of cards. Each…
Win on the wind
Nelson-born sculptor Phil Price, 44, has won the Allens Arthur Robinson People’s Choice Prize of AU$5000 for his sculpture “Morpheus”, which was part of the 18-day exhibition “Sculpture by the Sea” in Bondi. Price…
Lunchbox Aesthetics
Christchurch art commentator Denis Dutton is invited by The New York Times to discuss beauty and the Japanese bento box. What does the care devoted to the visual details in a packed lunch suggest…
Conceptual Costs
Professor of philosophy at the University of Canterbury and author of The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure and Human Evolution Denis Dutton writes an opinion piece for The New York Times on the surprises conceptual…
Into the Void
Photographer Robert Pearson was the sole New Zealander, and one of 18,000 entries, to make the International Photography Awards (IPA) final selections winning second place in the Fine Art: Abstract Pro section for ‘Entrophy…
Squat sophisticates
Aucklander Dan Simon, 31, and his art collective ‘The Oubliette’ have been squatting in two 15 million pound mansions in the exclusive suburb of Mayfair, London, transforming the six-story buildings into a cultural centre…
At Home on the Edge
Artist Judy Millar, 52, explains to the Financial Times that she lives “at the end of a seven-mile dusty road on Auckland’s west coast and overlooks perhaps one of the most untouched beaches on…
New beginnings in Alaska
Former director of natural environment at Te Papa Carol Diebel will begin a new role overseeing the University of Alaska Museum of the North in October. In addition to her work leading Te Papa’s…
On show in Melbourne
New Zealand jeweller and artist Warwick Freeman is exhibiting his new work, ‘Spring Collection’, at Gallery Funaki in Melbourne until 1 August. Freeman has been making jewellery for over 25 years and is credited…
Taking over Rotterdam
Iconic Auckland pop artist, Billy Apple, has hijacked the Netherlands art scene by holding a major solo exhibition at the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam. Comprising two parts ‘A History…
On display in Venice
The work of New Zealand artists Judy Millar (above) and Francis Upritchard (below) at the 53rd International Venice Biennale is beautifully showcased in a photographic essay by Ronnie Peters on his blog RonnieWorld. “Artist…
Piecing life together
Mt Maunganui artist and jigsaw puzzle creator Royce McClure, 53, was in India this month assembling a 25,000 piece puzzle he designed for a Lipton Tea promotion. A veteran of over 180 puzzles and…
Abstract-minded
New Zealand-inspired prints by American artist and solarplate expert Dan Welden feature in an exhibition at Adelphi University, Garden City, with some of the paintings evoking those of Colin McCahon. Both artists use abstraction…
Art with Love
Auckland Art Gallery has been gifted 15 major works of art, including Picasso’s “Femme à la résille (Woman in a hairnet),” at a total of $115 million, the largest ever donation to an Australasian…
During on NZ best
New Zealander, private arts advisor and curator, Helen Klisser During, who is based in New York and Connecticut, talks to the NYArtsmagazine.com’s D. Dominick Lombardi about New Zealand art. When asked to put New…
Upritchard’s new work
London-based New Zealand artist, Francis Upritchard, 32, launched her new book Every Colour By Itself last week, at a reception held at New Zealand House in London by High Commissioner Derek Leask, hosted by…
Transformed in Sydney
Auckland-based artist Lisa Reihana will consider “what it means to transform the self into another persona”, at an upcoming exhibition entitled Double Take on at the Art Gallery of New South Wales from May…
Painted loneliness
Christchurch-born painter Euan Macleod has won the 2009 Gallipoli Art Prize, a prize valued at $20,000 for Smoke/Pinklandscape/Shovel which portrays the muddy trenches of World War I. Competition judge John McDonald said: “This year,…
Balance in stone
Waitakere sculptor John Edgar’s ‘Ballast’ exhibition, which uses stone collected from various historic Scottish quarries, will be on show as part of the Edinburgh Arts Festival from August 5 through November 30 at the…
Return to the Overlooked
Now Sydney-based, New Zealand photographer Rebecca Wiig, 27, has documented the city’s RSL clubs for an exhibition of 26 photographs called ‘If These Walls Could Talk’ held at Darlinghurst’s Tap Gallery. She began shooting…
Fish over sea
Eighty-four goldfish flew over the Tasman Sea on March 21 as part of the New Zealand-wide One Day Sculpture series of temporary public art works, this conceived by Italian artist Paola Pivi entitled…
Art for all times
Contemporary Pacific art exhibition Le Folauga is showing at Taiwan’s Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts until April 5. Le Folauga features a representative sample of the best artwork being created in New Zealand by…
Dodgy and Deadly
Over three weeks, Wellington artists Christian Pearce and Greg Broadmore created exhibition ’99DS’ with digital images created entirely on Nintendo’s DS handheld game console, which were on display through February in Wellington’s Civic Square….
Rooms with views
New Zealand artists Judy Millar and Francis Upritchard have both secured venues at the 2009 La Biennale di Venezia, with Millar’s large-scale installation ‘Giraffe-Bottle-Gun’ to be exhibited in Sant’ Antonin church and Upritchard’s ‘Save…
Is it or isn’t it
29 January 2009 – University of Canterbury professor of philosophy Denis Dutton’s latest book The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution – which supposes that art appreciation stems first from evolutionary adaptions made during…
A Creative New Zealand
New Zealand’s contemporary art scene “boasts established institutions, a healthy commercial scene, and a flourishing network of artist-run spaces,” as catalogued in this year’s artasiapacific Almanac. The Arts Council, Te Waka Toi, and the…
In the Manner of a Woman
Having spent the year taking the art world by storm, New Zealand resident and south-pacific artist Shigejuki Kihara is one of artasiapacific’s “five artists for 2009”. Kihara, a Japanese Samoan made a name for…
Stellar win for Brettkelly
Auckland documentary-maker Pietra Brettkelly has won Best Documentary Award for Art Star and the Sudanese Twins at the 2008 Whistler Film Festival. The jury was quoted as saying, “This is a film that…
Of Life and Death
Christchurch Press photographer John Kirk-Anderson’s image of a helicopter about to rescue Japanese climber Hideaki Nara, 51, from Mt Aoraki’s Empress Plateau, features in the SF Gate’s ‘Day in Pictures’….
Made for Manhattan
New Zealand designers are now represented at essenze, a store within a store at the Metropolitan Design Center on Broadway in New York, which opened on November 19. Exporting to the US since 2005,…
With eyes for art
New Zealander Jennifer Flay, artistic director of Fiac (Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain), is heading a break-through at the contemporary Parisian art fair, a role she was appointed to in 2003. “While location is one…
Everyman in the lens
Northland photographer Ross T. Smith exhibits images of subject Hemi Tuwharerangi Paraha at the Visual Arts Gallery of the University of Alabama through November 1. The images are powerfully elemental. He becomes…
Influence from the inside
New Zealand filmmaker Justin Pemberton has won the world’s longest running environmental film festival, Cinemambiente for his feature-length documentary Nuclear Comeback, parts of which were filmed in Chernobyl’s abandoned radioactive control room and core….
Thinking about art
New Zealand sculptor, London-based Francis Upritchard says she wants to be an old lady making art and that art collectors should buy art for its meaning rather than its market value. Upritchard, 32, who…
Guardians surface in DC
Te Papa exhibition ‘Whales | Tohor?’ has opened at Washington DC’s National Geographic Museum. The exhibition features whale specimens including an 18-metre-long male sperm whale skeleton. The cultural significance of whales to the peoples…
Alive in New York
Auckland multimedia and performance artist Shigeyuki Kihara will make her North American debut at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art with an exhibition called ‘Living Photographs’. During the exhibition, Kihara will also perform ‘Taualuga:…
Branding Billy Apple
Aucklander Barrie Bates became Pop artist Billy Apple in 1962, and since then – his name now trademarked – has always made art, life. His 2008 solo exhibition ‘The Bruce and Denny Show’ at…
Edges painted black
New Zealand artists New York/Auckland-based Max Gimblett (above) and Judy Millar of Auckland, (below) feature in a group show exploring “different aesthetic angles using black”, in an exhibition entitled, ‘Edges of Darkness’ at Berlin’s…
Caged Art Debut
Auckland artist Sharon Finn is illuminating Sydney’s Simmer on the Bay with her first exhibition, ‘The Gilded Cage’, a collection of bejewelled chandeliers and bodiced mannequins, one adorned with antique watchfaces . For the…
On your marks, get set
Artist Daniel Crooks, who originally hails from Hastings, has won the Australian inaugural $100,000, Basil Sellers Art Prize for ‘Static no. 11 (man running)’, a computer-modified video of champion athlete Christopher Brown sprinting on…
From the gods in Paris
Maori art is part of an exhibition called ‘Pacific Encounters: Art and Divinity in Polynesia 1760-1860’ at the Musée du quai Branly in Paris; 250 objects from the “Polynesian Triangle” isles – New Zealand,…
In love with Demant
Whakatane artist Rozi Demant has her international debut exhibition with ‘Lovebirds’ at Santa Monica’s Tarryn Teresa Gallery. Demant, who holds the rare and enviable position of having produced five sold-out solo exhibitions before reaching…
Art’s urban sprawl
Christchurch hosts art biennale SCAPE 2008, a city-wide exhibition of new work by New Zealand and international artists all exploring the concept of cities as spaces reflective of social change, “constantly in flux.”…
Venice bound
Christchurch sculptor Francis Upritchard and Auckland painter and teacher Judy Millar will represent New Zealand in a six-month exhibition at the 2009 Venice Biennale. Upritchard is known for her hand-made figures inspired by the…
Pastoral in pieces
Auckland pebble mosaic artist John Botica has created what is considered, in the specialist publication Mosaic Art Now, one of the world’s top 100 contemporary mosaic works. Botica’s ‘Tree of Life’ was commissioned by…
Outfoxing furniture
The small town of Pokeno in Franklin district, Auckland is behind ex-Thompson Twin Alannah Currie’s latest artistic foray, a display of surreal furniture on show at London’s Ragged School. Under the moniker Miss Pokeno,…
From a Common Ancestor
Auckland Museum’s “most ambitious” travelling exhibition Vaka Moana – Voyages of the Ancestors is currently at Taiwan’s National Museum of Prehistory and the National Museum of Natural Science. University professor and editor of the…
Lange’s Working Class
Pioneering filmmaker New Zealander Darcy Lange’s work screened in New York’s Lehmann Maupin gallery as part of group show, You & Me, Sometimes… A “textured” and “cool” show according to The New…
