Indigenous Art Takes Centre Stage at Auckland Art Gallery

Image: Kura Te Waru Rewiri, Front, 2003, Acrylic on canvas, 1050 x 1650 mm, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, purchased 2012

Auckland Art Gallery is giving indigenous art centre stage in two new exhibitions, 5 Maori Painters and My Country: Contemporary Art from Black Australia. Visually stimulating and thought provoking, the exhibitions offer viewers an alternative perspective on the world and a way to deepen understanding around the Aboriginal and Maori cultures.

5 Maori Painters celebrates the history and development of Maori painting through the work and vision of five contemporary female Maori artists; Saffronn Te Ratana, Emily Karaka, Star Gossage, Kura Te Waru Rewiri and Robyn Kahukiwa. The exhibition provides an overview of the five artists' practices and the creative, social and political influences in Maori art from the early 21st Century. Alongside the paintings, curator Ngahiraka Mason has placed seminal artifacts including natural pigments and early examples of traditional painting, creating a link between past and present and reflecting a Maori way of thinking.

The gallery also commemorates the late sculptor Arnold Manaaki Wilson in Pou Ihi | Pou Whenua | Pou Tangata. Wilson played a significant role in the NZ art community, including mentoring each of the 5 Maori Painters. On display are his signature pou or 'posts' and other examples of his most groundbreaking artworks.

Image: Emily Karaka, Te Uri O Te Ao, 1995, Oil on canvas, 3000 x 3800 mm, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, purchased with the assistance of Reader's Digest New Zealand Limited

My Country: Contemporary Art from Black Australia is the largest and most significant exhibition of contemporary Indigenous Australian art ever shown in New Zealand. Comprising nearly 100 works by over 40 artists, My Country presents personal, ancestral and indigenous perspectives on their past and present relations with the vast expanse of the Australian continent. Featured artists include Vernon Ah Kee, Richard Bell, Bindi Cole, Fiona Foley, Sally Gabori, Tony Albert and filmmaker Warwick Thornton.

Included with My Country is Kangaroo Crew, a Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art Children's Art Centre exhibition developed in collaboration with Indigenous Australian artist Gordon Hookey, from the Waanyi people. The free and family-friendly exhibition explores the artist's story of four kangaroos whose home on a sacred hill is threatened by the arrival of myna birds.

Image: Christian Thompson, Bidjarra/Kunja people, Black Gum 2 (from ‘Australian Graffiti’ series), 2008, Type C photograph, Purchased 2008 by the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Grant, Collection: Queensland Art Gallery