Explore the Gallery's permanent collection in one of the largest and most absorbing presentations of New Zealand art. Travel from the present day back to the 1600s, uncovering the creativity and cultural diversity of New Zealanders. Discover their preoccupations with identity, migration and the land.

Begin your journey among video, photography, sculpture and painting by contemporary New Zealand artists. See Michael Parekowhai's sculpture, The Indefinite Article, which - layered with meaning - was first exhibited when he was just 21.

Continue to the period 1900 to 1965 and find paintings by Colin McCahon and Rita Angus. Encounter Ralph Hotere's horizon-spanning mural, Godwit/Kuaka, which for many years greeted travellers arriving at Auckland International Airport.

Further on, discover how New Zealanders first saw themselves and their lands. Via early European impressions of the islands to Goldie and Lindauer's classic portraits of Māori and Pakehā, reach both the beginning and the end of this story of New Zealand art.

Ongoing
Ground / Level 1
Free entry 

Presenting sponsor

 

Image: Michael Parekowhai, The Indefinite Article, 1990
acrylic on wood, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and Chartwell Gift Collection
Purchased with generous assistance from Jim Barr and Mary Barr, 2009

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