This month, the Ministry of Education’s Creatives in Schools programme received a $4 million boost. But leading arts educators say the scheme fails to create lasting change for a system in crisis. New Zealand has led the world in this area before, writes Mark Amery. From the 1880s through to the 1930s, influential American philosopher … Read more
In a photo essay by Justin Spiers and interview with Spinoff art editor Mark Amery, artist John Ward Knox introduces his Karitāne home and garden, and various projects – bees, pond, a portrait on silk of the prime minister from a live sitting. Ward Knox also answers one of this year’s biggest mysteries: the origins … Read more
From a Ronnie Van Hout take on The Breakfast Club to James Oram carving a rendition of his own face out of soap, Christchurch Art Gallery’s show of new video art in response to Covid-19 isolation is worth championing, writes Mark Amery. Commissioning artists in uncertain times makes sense. For, uncertainty for artists is typical … Read more
In the age of the selfie and mundane domestic photography recontextualised for social media, Auckland artist Meg Porteous’s work speaks strongly to the politics of representation. Art editor Mark Amery shares words and images with Porteous across bubbles, via screens, in advance of her show at the Auckland Virtual Art Fair from this Thursday. I … Read more
Questions are being asked about the judging process for New Zealand’s most prestigious art prize, the Walters Prize, with leading art commentators suggesting a review is necessary. It was a short 13 line story on Radio New Zealand’s website last Friday that signalled some discontent, somewhere, out in the artworld. “The judging process for the … Read more
UPDATE March 20: Auckland Museum, Auckland Art Gallery and Te Papa in Wellington today announced they are closing their doors from tonight for at least two weeks. Many other galleries and museums remain open for now, but people should check the website before visiting, as the situation is changing fast. Right now, all public galleries … Read more
Yes, it’s still summer and, en route to that final festival or beach bolt-hole, the season of the road trip. Here Spinoff Art co-editor Mark Amery runs down some of the best North Island contemporary art stopovers, and the mavericks behind them. We cross the Cook Strait next year, promise. Back in 2000 Gregory Burke … Read more
Lessons in life and art from Samoan New Zealand artist Yuki Kihara, Aotearoa’s representative at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2021. When Yuki Kihara was announced as New Zealand’s next representative at the Venice Biennale, it marked a number of firsts. Not only will Kihara be the first person of Pacific descent to represent New … Read more
Spinoff Art editor Mark Amery and photographer Ebony Lamb pay a visit to the internationally celebrated jewellery couple at their colonial cottage above Island Bay. The white horses are galloping in from the Cook Strait as photographer and singer-songwriter Ebony Lamb (Eb and Sparrow) and I roll in to Island Bay, to the home and … Read more
A remarkable quilt project at Wellington’s Play_Station, Sissymancy! references the AIDS Quilt project while laying new ground for current and future generations of queer artists, writes Mark Amery. I remember being called a sissy at school. Not nice. The effeminate aligned with cowardliness. It was one step away from being called a fag. The … Read more
It’s Auckland Artweek (12-20 October) and we’re doing our bit by shining a light on the people behind the city’s commercial galleries. Welcome to The Spinoff Art’s inaugural Art Dealer Questionnaire: an insight into the lives of the people who represent the interests and work of our artists. As the answers below reveal, they can’t … Read more
Tongan New Zealand performance artist Kaisolaite Uhila is the current visiting artist in residence at Dunedin Public Art Gallery. Whether he’s living homeless around the boundary of Auckland Art Gallery for the Walters Prize, or sleeping with pigs in Aotea Square, Uhila uses his body and its labour to start uneasy conversations that break down … Read more
In this instalment of Things I Learned At Art School, Bob Jahnke talks Māori identity, education and, on the occasion of the Tuia 250 commemorations, “getting Cooked”. Bob Jahnke is the winner of the 2019 Wallace Arts Trust Paramount Award and an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori art. … Read more
The Future of Work at Hutt City’s Dowse Art Museum makes visible our changing work conditions. Mark Amery took a tour, and even got some work done himself while he was there. I’ve gone to work at the gallery. And I’m making an exhibition of myself. Making my labour visible. I’m writing about the exhibition … Read more
Hope, censorship, the Hong Kong protests and their threads across Asia and the Pacific: a conversation with artist Yuk King Tan, whose show Crisis of the Ordinary is at Starkwhite gallery now. A lattice screen made out of white plastic zip tie police handcuffs. Batons, bottles, drones and other protest objects, wrapped in many-coloured threads, … Read more
Artist Nikau Hindin is reviving a contemporary form of Māori art that was largely lost after the extinction of the aute plant in Aotearoa. Ngāpuhi and Te Rarawa artist Nikau Hindin has recently been taught by ancestors in Hawai’i the skills of beating tapa or barkcloth, reviving as contemporary form a Māori art largely lost … Read more