New Zealand Artists on Show in London

As a season of summer blockbuster exhibitions come to a close in London, autumn is hot on its heels in September, with a range of shows opening in the capital’s biggest cultural establishments. New Zealand artists, including Turner Prize-shortlisted Luke Willis Thompson, whose work is on show at Tate Britain, Lisa Reihana (pictured), a part of the Royal Academy’s Oceania, and Francis Upritchard, at the Barbican, are amongst the Evening Standard’s ten exhibitions you need to see.

“This year marks 250 years of the Royal Academy – but 1768 is also famed in other circles. It was that year that Captain James Cook set sail to explore the South Pacific, and he brought a bunch of artists with him. [The] exhibition [Oceania] is a wide reaching survey of arts and culture in the region, with pieces on display ranging from 500 year old pieces, canoes and ceramics, right up to contemporary artworks presented by artists from the area,” Ailis Brennan writes for the Evening Standard.

“The Barbican’s installation-focused exhibition space The Curve will welcome its 30th commission this month in the form of a site-specific work by New Zealand-born sculptor Francis Upritchard. Inside the space, Upritchard will be creating three individual spaces, each responding to different materials, colours and textures in a way that responds to the Barbican’s unique Brutalist architecture.”

Upritchard’s Wetwang Slack starts at the Barbican on 27 September and runs until 6 January 2019.

Oceania opens on 29 September and runs through 10 December.

Original article by Ailis Brennan, London Evening Standard, August 30, 2018.