Five Exciting and Powerful Wellington Art Exhibitions to Step Into This Spring

One of the world’s most visited multi-sensory experiences has come alive on Wellington’s waterfront. Until 26 October, Digital Nights Wellington – Van Gogh Alive will see more than 3000 of the Dutch master’s works projected onto shipping containers stacked three-high in a temporary outdoor gallery on Odlins Plaza. The project is the brainchild of Melbourne-based Grande Exhibitions, which, for the past 15 years, has hosted immersive exhibitions and gallery experiences in over 140 cities across the world. The 45-minute family-friendly experience creates the sensation of walking right into Van Gogh’s paintings. Famous works including The Starry Night and Sunflowers are presented in fine detail using Grande Exhibitions’ state-of-the-art technology combining 40 high-definition projectors, while a classical musical score accompanies the vibrant colours in cinema-quality surround-sound.

This Te Papa exhibition showcases modern design and art of 1950s Aotearoa. Modern Living: Design in 1950s New Zealand focuses on a 1950s exhibition which was held in Auckland, and conveyed the idea of modern living to New Zealand. The exhibition introduced New Zealanders to a vision for a more equal, happier way of life that grew from the devastation of World War II. The version at Te Papa’s Toi Art offers a lens into the ground-breaking Auckland exhibition, and an exciting era of design in Aotearoa. Modern Living features local and international furniture, pottery, textiles, photographs, lighting, art and architectural drawings. Works such as Frances Hodgkins’ 1938 print Arrangement of Jugs, Frank Hofmann’s photograph of the 1952 Art and Design exhibition and John Crichton’s Safari Chair will be on display.

The relationship between contemporary art and the airport comes under the spotlight in Terminal. Appearing at City Gallery Wellington until 14 February, 2021, the exhibition focuses on art made about the airport, not for it. City Gallery says Terminal reverses the usual relationship between art and the airport, and is perfectly timed for the new travel reality. It includes parodies of airport security instruction videos, photographs developed by the x-ray baggage scanner, a performance staged on the runway of Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport, photographs of confiscated objects at JFK Airport, and two films set in an abandoned airport in Athens.

Image: Elias Rodriguez.

Wellington’s cat-about-town Mittens is best-known for roaming the streets and wandering into public venues. His exploits are regularly shared on an almost-50,000-member Facebook group and have been featured on everything from The Guardian to The Taipei Times. This year, Wellington Mayor Andy Foster awarded the feline celebrity the ‘keys to the city’ and a formal certificate. Now, the ginger Turkish Angora has his own dedicated exhibition inside Wellington Museum. The mini-exhibition Mittens – Floofy and Famous will be on display at the museum until 11 October offering a peek into Mittens’ artistic inspiration, home life and general padding about town. Wellington Museum is calling the pawsome exhibit “a ‘must-see’ for Mittens lovers of all ages.”

Image: Wellington City Council.

Set in Te Papa’s Toi Art gallery, MAU: House of Night and Day focuses on themes of ceremony, philosophy, culture, activism and performance. Lemi Ponifasio, a multidisciplinary artist, director and choreographer, is the founder of MAU, the international theatre and creative forum which has worked with communities and artists around the globe. Through the forum, Ponifasio is known for creating large-scale productions and installations. He’s also the mastermind behind this latest exhibition. One key element of House of Night and Day is a performance based on a previous work titled Lagimoana — ‘lagi’ meaning heaven in Samoan and ‘moana’ referring to the ocean. It was created by Ponifasio for the 56th International Venice Art Biennale 2015, curated by the late Okwui Enwezor, and is intended to be a welcome call to the ocean to return us back to our nature.

Image: Lemi Ponifasio.