Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery

Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi at Twenty

Billy Apple

Fiona Clark

Mataaho Collective

Colin McCahon

Christopher Perkins

05 November 2019 – 22 March 2020

On 21 September 1999 Adam Art Gallery opened its doors for the first time. To mark our twentieth year, we celebrated with a suite of projects that demonstrated how we engage with artists and their practices, and art and its histories, to contribute critically and creatively to culture in contemporary Aotearoa New Zealand.

Te whai a te whenua: Mataaho Collective’s Te Whare Pora
Level 3, Congreve Foyer

Te Whare Pora, 2012, is a powerful statement of indigenous knowledge systems and collective creativity. It is the first work made by the four-artist Mataaho Collective and the newest acquisition to the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection.

Mataaho Collective is

Erena Baker (b. 1984, Te Atiawa, Ngāti Toarangatira, Ngāti Raukawa) completed a Masters of Māori Visual Arts with First Class Honours through Massey University, Palmerston North in 2009. She is currently a Lecturer in the Whiti o Rehua School of Art, Massey University. Erena lives and works in Palmerston North.

Sarah Hudson (b. 1986, Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tūhoe) graduated with a Masters of Fine Arts with high distinction from Massey University, Wellington in 2010. She is an artist, mother, and curator at Te Kōputu a te Whanga a Toi Whakatāne Library & Exhibition Centre. Sarah lives and works in Whakatāne.

Bridget Reweti (b. 1985, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi) completed a Masters of Māori Visual Arts with First Class Honours at Massey University, Palmerston North and also holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Museum Studies from Victoria University of Wellington. She is currently co-chair of Enjoy Contemporary Art Space Trust and also co-editor of ATE Journal of Māori Art. In 2020, she will be the Frances Hodgkins Fellow at the University of Otago. Bridget lives and works in Wellington.

Terri Te Tau (b. 1981, Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne ki Wairarapa) completed a PhD in Creative Arts from Massey University in 2015. She also holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Māori Visual Arts and a Bachelor of Māori Visual Arts from Massey University, Palmerston North in 2008. She recently completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at CARE, Centre for Culture-Centred Approach to Research at Massey University. Terri is currently a freelance artist and writer and lives in Pohangina Valley in the Manawatū.

The acquisition of this work was assisted by donations to the Adam Art Gallery Development Fund.

‘A way through’ – Colin McCahon’s Gate III
Curated by Nina Dyer and Sophie Thorn
Level 3, Upper Chartwell Gallery

For the centenary of the artist’s birth that coincided with Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi’s twentieth year as the University’s professional art gallery and guardian of its art collection, we revisited Colin McCahon’s Gate III, 1971, a key work in the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, returning it to the building it helped launch in 1999. For this presentation, we brought together archival material that tells the story of this work: why and for what it was made; how it found its way to the University in Wellington; and what was going through McCahon’s mind as he painted.

The exhibition toured to Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery in Auckland and to the Centre of Contemporary Art (CoCA) in Christchurch.

‘Looking for a new country’ – Christopher Perkins in New Zealand
Curated by Christina Barton and Lachlan Taylor
Levels 2 and 1

Drawing on public and private collections from throughout New Zealand, this is the first exhibition to survey the work of Christopher Perkins (1891–1968), the British artist who spent five years in New Zealand (1929–1933) where he produced such iconic images as Taranaki, 1931 and Frozen Flames, 1931 (both in the collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki). Though these works have acquired a legendary status in New Zealand’s nationalist art history, the full extent of his production in New Zealand is not well known and no exhibition has previously been undertaken to review his achievements. This show sought to remedy this oversight, extending attention to Perkins’ portraiture and his studies of Māori subjects undertaken in his final year when he and his family moved from Wellington to Rotorua, before returning to the United Kingdom.

This exhibition was supported by Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa.

The Live Feed – Fiona Clark’s ‘Egmontiana’
Level 2, Kirk Gallery

To coincide with the first survey of Christopher Perkins’ New Zealand works, Adam Art Gallery invited Taranaki-based artist Fiona Clark to develop an installation that drew on her extensive archive of images relating to te mounga, the mountain under whose shadow she lives and works.

Fiona Clark (b. 1954) received a Diploma in Fine Arts (Hons) from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, in 1975, focusing on performance and sculpture, though photography became her favoured medium. She has developed her practice from this time, undertaking in-depth, long-term photographic projects documenting specific social groups including transgender, gay and lesbian communities, body-builders, AIDS sufferers, and local Māori. Significant projects she has undertaken include Kai Moana (1979/81); Body Building (1982); He Taura Tangata (1986); Living with AIDS (1989); The Other Half (1997), and Go Girl (2002). Her work was included in, but subsequently removed from the first survey of contemporary photography, The Active Eye, organised and toured by the Manawatu Art Gallery in 1975–6, a problematic act of censorship in response to public outcry at her photographs’ subject matter. Since then, her works have been included in exhibitions at public galleries including Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth; Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt; Manawatu Art Gallery, Palmerston North; Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui; National Art Gallery, Wellington; City Gallery, Wellington, and other spaces such as Real Pictures; Photoforum Gallery; Raven Row, London; Artspace, Auckland, and Michael Lett, Auckland. Clark lives and works in Tikorangi, where she presents her work in a gallery she has created in a part of the old dairy factory she owns and where she maintains and develops her extensive archives. She is represented by Michael Lett, Auckland.

Billy Apple, From the Decade Series, 2019, Adam Art Gallery Edition 1
Window Gallery

To mark the Adam Art Gallery’s twentieth-birthday milestone, we commissioned artist Billy Apple to produce a limited-edition art work. He chose to mark the occasion by creating an inkjet print from his From the Decade Series in an edition of twenty. The edition is available for purchase via the Adam Art Gallery online shop. Proceeds from its sale are used to support the work of the gallery.

Media release

Public programme pdf

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Billy Apple, From the Decade Series

Looking For A New Country: Christopher Perkins In New Zealand

Mata Aho Collective making Te Whare Pora, Enjoy Public Art Gallery Wellington, 2011. Photo courtesy of Mata Aho Collective

Mata Aho Collective, Te Whare Pora, 2012, woven faux mink blanket, 10m x 5m, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased 2019. Installation view, Te whai a te whenua: Mata Aho Collective’s Te Whare Pora, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2019. Photo: Shaun Matthews

Mata Aho Collective, Te Whare Pora (detail), 2012, woven faux mink blanket, 10m x 5m, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased 2019. Photo: Shaun Matthews

Colin McCahon, Gate III, 1970, acrylic on canvas, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased with the assistance of The Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, 1972

Colin McCahon, Gate III, 1970, acrylic on canvas, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased with the assistance of Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, 1972. Installation view, ‘A way through’ – Colin McCahon’s Gate III, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2019. Photo: Shaun Matthews

Colin McCahon, Gate III (detail), 1970, acrylic on canvas, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased with the assistance of Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, 1972. Photo: Shaun Matthews

Installation view, ‘A way through’ – Colin McCahon’s Gate III, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2019. Photo: Shaun Matthews

Christopher Perkins, Taranaki, 1931, oil on canvas, collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. Photo courtesy of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki

Installation view, ‘Looking for a new country’ – Christopher Perkins in New Zealand, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2019. Photo: Shaun Matthews

Christopher Perkins, Self-portrait, circa 1930, charcoal on card, Collection of Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, gift of P.W. Robertson, 1951. Installation view, ‘Looking for a new country’ – Christopher Perkins in New Zealand, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2019. Photo: Shaun Matthews

Installation view, ‘Looking for a new country’ – Christopher Perkins in New Zealand, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2019. Photo: Shaun Matthews

Christopher Perkins, Meditation, 1931, oil on canvas, Collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, purchased 1967. Installation view, ‘Looking for a new country’ – Christopher Perkins in New Zealand, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 6 November 2019 – 22 March 2020. Photo: Shaun Matthews

Installation view, ‘Looking for a new country’ – Christopher Perkins in New Zealand, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2019. Photo: Shaun Matthews

Fiona Clark, Ascent of Mt. Egmont, 1968, printed certificate, courtesy of Fiona Clark

Installation view of The Live Feed – Fiona Clark’s ‘Egmontiana’, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 6 November 2019 – 22 March 2020. Photo: Shaun Matthews

Installation view, The Live Feed – Fiona Clark’s ‘Egmontiana’, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2019. Photo: Shaun Matthews

Billy Apple, From the Decade Series, 2019, inkjet print on paper, framed, edition of 20. Commissioned by Adam Art Gallery on the occasion of the Gallery’s 20th birthday. Photo: Shaun Matthews