New season of exhibitions

Nobody can really explain why the city of New Plymouth, with a population of “only” 70,000 inhabitants at the Western edge of Aotearoa New Zealand, has defied cultural logic for decades: by producing three generations of leading New Zealand artists and inspiring a number of New Zealand’s most important contemporary artworks.

The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, this nation’s contemporary art museum, has since 1970 been considered “home” by many of them—especially those artists who have chosen to live here. Meanwhile, the Govett-Brewster has pursued an exhibition strategy to connect with artists who were born here, have familial ties here, or affiliations to the institution, and return them to what in our indigenous Maori language is called “turangawaewae”: their rightful place to stand. This explains our new season of exhibitions…

Matt Henry: Long Division
August 27–November 27, 2016

Artist Matt Henry—who was raised in New Plymouth—responds to the architecture of the Govett-Brewster building. Following major renovations and the addition of the Len Lye Centre, Henry is rediscovering the spaces that were once so familiar to him, as a visitor, an exhibition technician and an exhibiting artist. Henry’s spatial interventions take form in paintings that are installed in an unconventional manner, often embedded into the gallery walls or protruding into space.

For Long Division these minimalist interruptions have been designed and placed according to the artist’s close studies of the exhibition spaces and how audiences navigate them.

Set in Motion
Artists: Rebecca Baumann, Zilvinas Kempinas, Len Lye, Taree Mackenzie, Ross Manning
September 3–November 27, 2016

Presenting sculpture and film from the Len Lye Foundation Collection and Archive alongside contemporary kinetic art, Set in Motion considers how artists today experiment with everyday technology and materials in their explorations of movement, light, and sound.

The project has been assisted by the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body.

WharehokaSmith: Kureitanga II IV
Opening September 1, 2016

This wall painting is reflective of the architectural designs that Maori people use to decorate their wharenui (ceremonial architectural spaces). Through a traditional waiata/karakia (song/prayer) important to Ngati Te Whiti hapu and Taranaki iwi, the indigenous people on whose ground the Govett-Brewster stands, this work depicts the significance of water to our existence. It has been commissioned to enable the permanent presence of toi Maori (Maori art) within the body of the museum; connecting Papatuanuku (the Earth Mother) to Rangi (the Sky Father).

Its location at the heart of the Govett-Brewster will enable teaching about Maori cultural practices in the Maori language to visiting school students.

Ruth Buchanan: The actual and its document
September 10–December 4, 2016 

Taranaki-born artist Ruth Buchanan presents an exhibition resulting from the 2016 Govett-Brewster Aotearoa New Zealand Artist Residency. Buchanan investigated the Govett-Brewster Collection, focusing on the years 1970 to 1983. These dates coincide with the Govett-Brewster’s formation and the period in which her family lived in the region. Buchanan considers collections a form of biography and in this context she looks at the various systems of exchange, visibility, economy and power that play out through the story of one particular institution’s approach to collecting.

Utlising works from the Govett-Brewster Collection, Buchanan’s exhibition comprises a series of spatial and infrastructural interventions in the space, reflecting on the complex history of the Govett-Brewster and its relationship to the city of New Plymouth.

The project has been assisted by Creative New Zealand the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa.

The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery is commissioning and producing a handsome range of publications to accompany the exhibitions including new writing about the artists by international writers.

A diverse range of speaking, learning, screening and performance programs support the exhibitions from September through November. 

For more information visit govettbrewster.com.