Ocula Conversation Bani Abidi: ‘What you see in my films is what I know’ A group of voices accompanies me in the exhibition. They are singing words I cannot comprehend, yet the warm tunes are familiar: folk songs, love songs, songs of longing. There are letters, too. They speak of the quotidian details of a soldier's life: the hardness of the war, sending money to the family, and longing for familiar landscapes, food,...
Ocula Report Aichi to Okayama: Art in Japan Looks to the Future 11 Oct 2019 : Stephanie Bailey for Ocula There has been a flurry of triennial and biennial art activity in Japan this year. The Aichi Triennale opened in Nagoya this August, sparking a national debate about the shutting down of a display of formerly censored works—the result of public backlash against a burnt image of Emperor Hirohito and a statue commemorating the women forced into...
Ocula Insight | Video Hans Hartung and Art Informel at Mazzoleni London (1 October 2019-18 January 2020) presents key works by the French-German painter while highlighting his connection with artists active in Paris during the 50s and 60s. In this video, writer and historian Alan Montgomery discusses Hartung's practice and its legacy.Born in Leipzig in 1904, Hans...
Jonathan Smart has been showcasing contemporary New Zealand art since 1987. The gallery is dedicated to the exhibition of contemporary visual art, ranging from painting and photography to sculpture and moving image work.
Exhibitions change on a monthly basis.
Ocula Conversation Fiona Pardington Artist, New Zealand Working closely with City Gallery Wellington curator Aaron Lister, the New Zealand photographer Fiona Pardington has developed a retrospective that speaks to the extraordinary breadth of her practice. Fiona Pardington: A Beautiful Hesitation includes very early family portraits from the 1980s alongside her well-known photographs of objects and...
Ocula Conversation Julia Morison Artist, New Zealand Two thousand and fifteen marks the 40th anniversary of New Zealand artist Julia Morison’s first exhibition. Morison studied graphic design at Wellington Polytechnic in 1970-2 and painting at the University of Canterbury in 1973-5. After showing a number of severely formalist paintings she took a break from exhibiting: from this came two...
Ocula Conversation Maud Page Deputy Director, Collections & Exhibitions at Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane Maud Page is Deputy Director, Collection and Exhibitions at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. Her position oversees all aspects of the Gallery’s curatorial activities, and is directly responsible for the management and development of the Gallery’s collections and exhibitions. She has been instrumental in the...
Ocula Report 'Freedom Farmers' At The Auckland Art Gallery 4 Dec 2013 : Kate Brettkelly-Chalmers for Ocula Occupying the lion’s share of exhibition space at the Auckland Art Gallery, Freedom Farmers is said to be the museum’s largest survey of contemporary art in the last twenty-five years. Curated by the gallery’s own Natasha Conland, the exhibition looks at how the utopian energy of the 1970s is being artistically deployed in...
Related Press The surprising links between Brexit and Oceania art exhibition New Zealand Herald : 20 October 2018 The Telegraph described it as an "ambitious and astonishing exhibition" while Guardian art critic Jonathan Jones declared he didn't just like the art but wanted to live in the world it portrays. He also speculated that modernist masters like Picasso were more influenced by Oceanic art than we might have previously realised.The opening...
Related Press Anonymous donor gives $500,000 to complete Auckland's 'Lighthouse' sculpture New Zealand Herald : 1 September 2018 An anonymous arts donor wrote a cheque for $500,000 to complete the Lighthouse sculpture on Auckland's Queens Wharf when construction costs went through the roof.
Related Press Artists in residence: Where artists find their happy place The New Zealand Herald : 23 May 2018 Auckland Art Fair puts the spotlight on this city as a place to see the best in contemporary art from the Pacific Rim. Dionne Christian asks some of the artists what 'place' means to them — in particular the space they work in.
Related Press Te Papa's new art gallery Toi Art labelled a 'phenomenal creative success' stuff : 16 March 2018 Te Papa's biggest change since opening 20 years ago has been revealed for the first time.Its new gallery space Toi Art is the equivalent of 15 tennis courts in size. It has increased the national museum's floor space for art by 35 per cent.
