Pātaka Art+ Museum’s new exhibition season opens on 29 March with an opening event on the evening of Friday, 28 March, 6pm.
Lovers & Castaways features artworks from the 1980s by some of New Zealand’s most well-known artists, including Gretchen Albrecht, Julian Dashper, Tony Fomison, Dick Frizzell, Bill Hammond, Pat Hanly, Christine Hellyar, Louise Henderson, Ralph Hotere, Emily Karaka, Richard Killeen, Joanna Margaret Paul, Buck Nin, John Reynolds, Michael Smither, Terry Stringer, Kura Te Waru Rewiri, Greer Twiss, Jim Vivieaere and Mervyn Williams.
Paekakariki artist and Massey University lecturer Hemi Macgregor draws on geometric structures, patterns and processes in the natural world to explore our relationship with sky, water, earth and seasons. In his solo exhibition, Waiora, Hemi explores the spiritual elements that connect humans to the external worlds of te taiao, te taimoana, te taiwhenua and into tātai tuarangi (the cosmos). Working across painting, sculpture and installation, he draws on geometric structures, patterns and processes found in raranga, tukutuku and taniko.
Toloa Tales features new video works by Edith Amituanai (Aotearoa, Sāmoa) and Sione Tuívailala Monū (Aotearoa, Australia, Tonga) that explore what it means to return to an ancestral homeland.
Edith and Sione share their own kind of “return”, through personal stories, exchanges and tender moments of everyday life. They explore some of the ways the Pacific diaspora maintain their identity and culture after migration to countries like Aotearoa, Australia and the United States.
All three exhibitions run until 6 July 2025.
Images:
Michael Illingworth, A man and a woman, 1986.
Hemi McGregor, Wainui-atea, 2022.
Sione Tuívailala Monū, Lanu Moana is the Warmest Colour, 2024 and Edith Amituanai, Vaimoe, 2024. Single-channel videos. Courtesy of the artists.