‘It seems like someone else’s dream of my past.’ For Emma Neale, the painting ‘Wanderlust’ by Dunedin artist Sharon Singer stirs memories of her childhood, and new understandings of guilt and forgiveness. There were gifts from my father when he came home from overseas trips. Love offerings; a bit like those a cat might bring … 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
Sumptuous exhibition Sapphic Fragments at the Hocken Gallery, Dunedin is the result of painter Imogen Taylor’s year as Frances Hodgkins Fellow at the University of Otago, bringing her work on canvas and walls into conversation with Hodgkins, Sappho and other women artists to explore pleasure in abstraction. It reminds us, writes Bridie Lonie, that today’s … Read more
An extract from West Coast photographer Julia Johnston’s upcoming book Coast Roaders with an introduction by her for Spinoff readers. Johnston speaks as part of the biennial Photobook NZ festival in Wellington on Sunday 8 March. I grew up in a place where mountains meet the sea. In the middle of it all is a road, … Read more
Visiting the Audio Foundation and the Michael Lett Gallery, both just off Auckland’s K’ Road, Tulia Thompson finds herself considering the galaxy and what it means to be human. You have to imagine you are viewing these on a stifling hot February afternoon. There is a cacophony of men and machines, orange road cones and … Read more
Art schools are seen by many as beacons of liberalism. But is this the reality? Former student Anna McAllister recounts her fraught journey through art school. This piece was first published on The Pantograph Punch. In high school, the only subjects I was remotely good at were the practical arts. I stayed in the art block … 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
Serena Bentley writes on an illuminating survey in Auckland and Christchurch of the work of a daring modernist artist deserving of wider attention. Cigarette in hand, Dame Louise Henderson stares straight down the barrel of the camera. Her gaze is magnetic. So begins this exhibition, a partnership between Christchurch and Auckland art galleries, with the … Read more
Florida-based New Zealand writer Chloe Lane talks to Wellington artist Andrew Beck about life among the Trump devotees and swamp manatees of America’s strangest state. On New Year’s Eve, my husband and I and our one-year-old drove for two hours south-east of where we live in Gainesville, Florida to look for manatees. When the weather … Read more
Laurie Anderson talks with Martin Patrick about the power of art, the complexity of language, transforming the voice, working amid a dire political situation, Buddhism and Burroughs, and their shared love of terriers. A familiar voice is on the line. When we talk, American artist and musician Laurie Anderson is in Massachusetts, preparing an exhibition of … Read more
Palmerston North born, Brent Harris’ work is suffused with a murky darkness, unease and melancholia long associated with New Zealand art, cinema and music, but he considers himself an Australian artist. With his first solo exhibition on in Christchurch at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Towards the Swamp, he has returned. Kiran Dass … Read more
Poet Hera Lindsay Bird celebrates the work of New Zealand artist Hannah Salmon, aka Daily Secretion, who creates portraits of angry ‘alpha men’. First published on 10 July, 2019. Like most teenage punishers who took art history in high school, I spent years resentfully analysing the composition of Colin McCahon paintings and various other New … Read more
Catch up on Two Sketches, featuring Spinoff cartoonist Toby Morris chatting and drawing with a selection of New Zealand illustrators, artists, comic artists, cartoonists, sketchers and doodlers. Michel Mulipola: WWE, Marvel, Tekken and drawing The Rock Toby draws and chats with Sāmoan artist Michel Mulipola. Apart from being a pro wrestler, Michel is also a comic … Read more
Summer reissue: An exhibition of Dutch-New Zealand artist Theo Schoon at the City Gallery in Wellington set off a debate about the place of racially problematic work in public spaces. Lana Lopesi reports on the ongoing protests, and how they connect to the activism at Ihumātao. First published 8 August, 2019. When Theo Schoon: A … Read more
A conversation between editors about what made an impression in New Zealand visual arts in 2019. We unpack the highs and lows, and the exhibitions both naughty and nice. Warning: includes light interference from Elf on a Shelf. After six months of The Spinoff Art, co-editors Megan Dunn and Mark Amery pause for pavlova and … Read more
To celebrate the 50th birthday of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery/Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth, Walters Prize-winning artist Ruth Buchanan has rehung their collection, bringing previously unseen works and skeletons out of the closet. Her new exhibition The scene in which I find myself/Or, where does my body belong examines the politics of a public … Read more
We get a handle on the artists and artworks that shaped this decade in Aotearoa. As 2019 draws to a close, the four nominees for this year’s Turner Prize subverted the competition – they asked to receive the award as a collective. Meanwhile, at Art Basel Miami Beach, a banana taped to the wall sold … Read more
Curator and art writer Justin Paton on the process of writing McCahon Country, homesickness, and uncontemporary art. Plus his top tips for art writers. Justin Paton is the author of the award-winning How to Look at a Painting. A book so popular it inspired a TV series of the same title, which Paton also presented. … Read more
Richard Brimer’s photography exhibition Harvest is a little bit Humans of New York. Except it’s in Hastings, has zero pretension, and captures the diverse population of seasonal labourers who work the local vineyards and farms. Richard Brimer was born and raised in Hawke’s Bay. At 19 he worked his first vintage at Vidal’s winery in … 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
Māia Abraham reviews an exhibition currently showing at the Christchurch Art Gallery bringing to the fore the rich moving-image practices of Māori artists. On a table in a room of Māori Moving Image: An Open Archive sits written material about Māori artists and their practices. It barely fills three archive boxes. In this exhibition we … 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
Our recent Spinoff Art survey provided a snapshot on gender equality in the local art scene, but it wasn’t the full story. Anna Knox continues the conversation by asking some gallery owners and directors for their responses to our findings. The Spinoff’s survey of gender bias in visual arts found that the industry continues to … Read more
Artist Lema Shamamba highlights the threads that connect cellphone use to violence and exploitation in the Democratic Republic of Congo in her first solo exhibition at Auckland’s Objectspace. Embroidered into a purple and yellow dress, a woman has one baby slung on her front and another on her back. Looking at her bright colours, you … Read more
Los Angeles based, New Zealand born sculptor Fiona Connor, currently showing at the Mossman Gallery in Wellington, shares her top 10 – from book of the year to favourite memory of summer. I met Fiona Connor at a busy coffee shop on a hot, bright September morning in a bustling district in East Los Angeles. … Read more
At Wellington’s New Zealand Portrait Gallery for one last week is Jacqueline Fahey’s Suburbanites, a survey show showcasing 60 years of the Auckland artist’s riotous oil paintings. Megan Dunn writes a fan letter, in lieu of a review. Dear Jacqueline, I wanted to make time to review Suburbanites but a four-year-old daughter, my own half-written … 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
The Shouting Valley is a powerful group exhibition at the Gus Fisher Gallery in Auckland that interrogates and gives voice to the people caught between borders. But is the real paradox of this politically charged show the limit of what art can do? Lana Lopesi reviews. “What’s bad about borders?” asked David Hall in a … Read more
In time for Auckland Artweek, Eloise Callister-Baker opens the door on a cluster of small Auckland art spaces, once off the beaten track and ephemeral, now finding cunning new ways to adapt and survive in the CBD property market. Auckland’s terrific documentor of art openings, Sait Akkirman of artdiary.co.nz, provides most of the pictures. … Read more