Colin McCahon: On Going Out with the Tide

Overview

The last time City Gallery Wellington was wall-to-wall with Colin McCahon's paintings was in 2002. 15 years on McCahon is back on the gallery's walls but with a different focus. Colin McCahon: On Going Out with the Tide zeroes in on the artist's works that engage with Māori culture and considers them alongside New Zealand's political and social climate at the time they were made and what they mean now.

The exhibition's curators want to create dialogue, and to help get the conversation flowing there's a full programme of free events. Curators, historians, painters, poets, composers and an ex-Prime Minister are part of a lineup of floor talks and lectures, plus there's film screenings at Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision.

But the important thing is that you simply go to the exhibition. So often viewed as reproductions, McCahon's works are striking in the real; the kind of artworks that'll stop you dead in your tracks. Don't miss it.