Late Night at Portrait Festival

Overview

The capital's newest visual arts festival, Face to Face: Portrait Festival, will bring together some of Aotearoa's most celebrated artists across four days in May (27–30). Nine Wellington dealer galleries and six public galleries have joined together for the new event celebrating New Zealand portraiture past and present.

As well as behind-the-scenes tours, the festival promises a program of free exhibitions, collection tours, talks, studio visits and performances. One highlight is the Late Night event on Saturday, May 29, when galleries will stay open late and host performances from local musicians. Attendees will be able to hop between the performances programmed by the CubaDupa team.

The public will be able to catch several performances over the course of the evening — each gallery will host three performances at 5.30pm, 6.30pm and 7.30pm. It will all kick off with an early 4.30pm performance at New Zealand Portrait Gallery from Warren Maxwell. The Trinity Roots and Little Bushman songwriter will be performing his solo loop set. Bartley & Company Art will play host to female-led jazz, classical and electronic band, Ida Lune. Bowen Galleries audiences will be treated to an acoustic set by Mo etc, and solo artist Zoe Moon will bring her brand of folk R&B to Jhana Millers Gallery.

Elsewhere during the evening, Mcleavey Gallery will be filled with the jazz-influenced vocals of Wallace; Miles Calder will perform tracks from his debut album Autopilot Life at Page Galleries; sound artist Thomas Voyce will bring experimental field recordings to {Suite} Gallery; the T-Bone Trio will perform old-time blues at Solander Gallery; and taonga pūoro specialist Jerome Kavanagh will share his collection of unique Māori musical instruments at Toi Māori Aotearoa.