The Swimmers author Chloe Lane interviews Zina Swanson, whose paintings are inspired by old and outlandish books about botany. December 1990, my family and I stayed with my aunty and uncle in the Christchurch suburb of Mount Pleasant. I remember the summer mostly hazily – picnics, swims, long hot days – though I also have … Read more
Theatre has been used as a medium to communicate society’s toughest issues for hundreds of years. Every Brilliant Thing is a show by Silo Theatre company encouraging thoughtful discussion of depression and suicide in a year where people’s mental health has been put under heavy pressure. As we shuffle into the opening performance of Every … Read more
The controversy over the People of Colour exhibition at Mercy Pictures shows how alt-right ideas can thrive in irony-steeped artistic environments, writes Amal Samaha. On Saturday, a gallery show in Auckland ended. The exhibition featured rows upon rows of flags, each on a relatively uniform rectangular frame, set in neat rows. All apparently normal, except … Read more
Sally Blundell talks to Christchurch poet John Newton about the book he wrote for his friend, Llew Summers: Body and Soul. Hutzpah. If there was one word missing from his book on the life and work of sculptor Llew Summers, says John Newton, it would be “hutzpah”. “Llew and his early sculptures and the way … Read more
A collective of four wāhine Māori artists, Mata Aho Collective transforms human-scale Māori weaving practices into atua-scale contemporary artworks that recently earned them a nomination for the 2020 Walters Art Prize. For writer Cassandra Barnett, their work provides some much-needed solace during a painful time. Today, I am a grieving and angry mother. As I … Read more
Wrapping everyone in a blanket of love, whakapapa and mauri for Matariki is the brave, exuberant and generous fabric art of Maungarongo Te Kawa, writes Amanda Thompson. E te Atua Nau enei rau harakeke he taonga Tukuna ki a matou Kia tika o matou mahi Ko Papatuanuku e takoto nei Tuturu Whakamaua Kia tina, tina … 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
What makes Zoom so exhausting? And where to for art? For Auckland artist Cushla Donaldson it’s about work that embraces the social and physical in new ways. Increasingly in Zoom meetings, rather than staring stoically at me from the other side of the screen, my opposite zoomer is asking if it’s OK if they do … Read more
Kim Paton, director of Auckland gallery Objectspace, contrasts the creativity of artists online in lockdown with the “stunning awful blow” dealt at the same time to the cultural sector. In the panic of the lockdown announcement, I bought a sewing machine. I’ve always sewed. In my late teens and early 20s I earned money making … Read more
Nirin, the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, remained open in March while many other exhibitions closed. Now one of Australasia’s most important art events is going online. “Nirin represents something like a spider’s web that connects people and ideas,” wrote Rosana Paulino in the catalogue for the Biennale of Sydney. “It is the border through which … Read more
There have been calls for major institutions like Auckland Art Gallery to do better in identifying LGBTQI+ or LGBTQI+ associated artists. New Auckland Art Gallery director Kirsten Paisley believes it’s ‘a conversation that needs to happen’. Writer Samuel Te Kani digs into the complications below the surface of the erasures of a queer New Zealand art … Read more
Comedian Penny Ashton writes on the necessity of the arts, especially during lockdown. On March 22, everyone’s favourite fiscal bloodhounds, the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union, sent out a tweet in response to Creative New Zealand’s announcement that it will dedicate an emergency response package to helping New Zealand’s artists, in the face of all our … Read more
‘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
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
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
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
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
Posting your art online is a no-brainer: it’s a gallery and marketing all in one. It’s also a cesspit of digital thieves. Josie Adams spoke to three artists about theft online. Ardie Savea has just changed his Twitter profile picture to a drawing by Toby Morris. Morris is stoked the rugby player likes his work, … 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
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
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
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
To mark Arts Month, the prime minister shares her thoughts on the future of the arts in Aotearoa. In my office in the Beehive, there are a couple of artworks that are very special to me. I mention this because, while it feels like the nation has been talking about nothing but a certain world … Read more
Carla van Zon, former artistic director of the Auckland Arts Festival, issues a call for artists to make their voices heard in the battle against climate change. I am passionate about the arts and believe art can change lives, attitudes and even the world, individual by individual. I also believe that art is pivotal to … Read more