Art
Green Islands
Isabella Smith talks to Regan Gentry about his sculpture Green Islands, comprising four native trees and plants – toetoe, pōhutukawa, harakeke, and tī kōuka – made out of Number 8 fencing wire, stainless steel staples, and galvanised pipes and plates.
Flip the gaze
The Sāmoan word aitu can be translated to mean ‘ancestor’, ‘spirit’, and ‘observer’, while mata means ‘eyes’. Lindah Lepou™’s exhibition Mata’AITU (voyeur) is on at Pātaka Art + Museum until the 8th of November and asks, have we evolved or devolved?
Excitable Alphabet
Poet Jenny Bornholdt and artist and sculptor Anton Hart share their latest exhibition Excitable Alphabet at Bowen Galleries until the 19th of September. Jenny’s words transform as Anton translates them into 3D totem-like sculptures and grooved discs.
Shapeshifter
Andrea Gardner’s Tableaux, on at Nine Fathom Deep Art Gallery until the 10th of September, sees the artist shapeshift through colourful, textured, staged scenes in an eclectic series of photographs.
Ngā Kina
Found on the waterfront, Michel Tuffery MNZM’s Ngā Kina sculpture is composed of nine concrete kina grouped on the seawall where the culverted Kumutoto Stream meets the sea, reminding us of the pā site that once stood on the shore, and the synergy between land and sea.
The Philanthropist’s Stone
Scott Eady’s The Philanthropist’s Stone stands proudly on lower Cuba Street commanding attention, inviting play, and commemorating one of Wellington’s most generous benefactors.
The Ground Will Not Hold
On show at Bowen Galleries until the 15th of August, transdisciplinary artist George Turner’s exhibition The Ground Will Not Hold explores the relationship between national identity and environmental collapse.
Walk the Line
Jewel-like discs of pounamu meander along the Cenotaph memorial precinct mapping the path of the Waipiro Stream in Joe Sheehan’s sculpture Walk the Line.
Boy with Red Apple
In his exhibition Silent Screams of Memories, on display at Enjoy Gallery until the 29th of August, Telly Tuita revisits a dark chapter of his childhood.
The Grove
We talk to Whanganui-based artist and sculptor Glen Hayward about The Grove, a collection of 16 copper-headed nails of varying heights installed in 2022 within the waterfront’s Whitmore Plaza.
Brutality and beauty
George Watson’s (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Mutunga, Moriori) latest exhibition The Choice, on at Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery until the 11th of October, brings together a dearth of references: from the farm and the villa to 19th-century English literature.
Elemental beginnings
Tom Mackie’s exhibition Portals, on at Jhana Millers Gallery until the 11th of July, deals with material memory – each scar, mark, and stain evidence of its elemental beginnings.