To celebrate the second year of Various Artists, and the first helmed by us, this week we looked back at some highlights of our year.
We listened back to:
Sofia's kōrero with gallerist and curator Melanie Roger about a group exhibition at Melanie Roger Gallery, the Secret Life of Plants, from October.
Beth's kōrero with Ross Deans, Jodie Yawa McMillan and Madi Macdonald about Through the Lens: Gendered Reflections, an exhibition of photography by women artists, spanning a period of over 40 years from September.
Sofia's interview package for the 2024 Elam Graduate Show - speaking to recent Capstone graduates Rainer Majsa, Maya Reed, and Talei Elvy, as well as Masters graduates Emily Brown and Aidan McNeillage - from November.
And Beth's kōrero with British author Amy Twigg about her debut novel Spoilt Creatures, ‘a simmering debut, heady with the possibilities of language and the righteousness of female rage’ from back in July.
And for Stage Direction this week: Alice Canton joined us in the studio to speak with some of the organisers of the Festival of Sumad at the Button Factory - brought to you by the organisers of the Gaza Dialogues and Make art not War.
Ngā mihi nui to everyone who spoke with us this year, it's been a pleasure x
Eliasson is an Icelandic–Danish world renowned artist known for sculptured and large-scaled installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to enhance the viewer's experience, often speaking to a broader reflection of the history of human interaction with the environment and its impact, raising awareness about the climate crisis and the climate’s impacted state.
Sofia caught up with Senior Curator of Global Contemporary Art at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Natasha Conland, about Eliasson’s practice and the significance of this exhibition.
Charles Ninow is a new gallery space that has recently opened at 102/203 Karangahape Road.
Ninow is a dealer, auctioneer, and promoter of fine art in Aotearoa who draws inspiration from the first-principles approach of New Zealand’s earliest commercial galleries of the 1960s and 1970s, believing in the transformative power of art by committing to expanding its audience.
Ralph Paine: Leaves from a Pillow Book is Ninow’s first and opening exhibition in this new space, continuing on from some of the less well known artists and projects he worked on and championed at his former boutique gallery and auction house, Bowerbank Ninow.
Sofia caught up with Charles about the new space and the exhibition by Paine.
Sofia had a kōrero with Senior Curator of Global Contemporary Art at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Natasha Conland, about the gallery’s newest exhibition - Olafur Eliasson: Your curious journey.
Eliasson is an Icelandic–Danish world renowned artist known for sculptured and large-scaled installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water and air temperature to enhance the viewer’s experience, often speaking to a broader reflection of the history of human interaction with the environment and its impact, raising awareness about the climate crisis and the climate’s impacted state.
Beth had a kōrero with artist Chloe Summerhayes about her exhibition of recent paintings at Suite Gallery. Summerhayes is a visual artist who often explores themes of the subconscious in her work.
Sofia had a kōrero with fine art dealer and gallerist Charles Ninow about his new gallery which opened on Karangahape Road last week, and the current exhibition it’s showing by Ralph Paine - Leaves from a Pillow Book.
And for Stage Direction this week, Alice Canton joined us in the studio to give us her 2024 theatre round up of the year.
Chloe Summerhayes is a visual artist who often explores themes of the subconscious in her work. Her recent works are currently being exhibited at Suite Gallery in Ponsonby alongside those of artist Jeremy Piert.
Suite writes that Summerhayes’ work ‘often references the romantic and phantasmal history of painting whilst contending with the anxieties of the contemporary world.
'[Her] practice reflects the complex nature of mortal existence by finding and straddling the ‘in between’ spaces regarding dualities such as reduction/addition, minimalism/excess and abstraction/figuration.’
Toi Te Mana: an Indigenous History of Māori Art is a landmark account in words and pictures of Māori art by Māori art historians Professor Deidre Brown (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu) and Associate Professor Ngarino Ellis (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou), with the late Jonathan Mane-Wheoki (Ngāpuhi, Te Aupōuri, Ngāti Kurī).
Published last month, the authors explore a wide field of art practice from the arrival of Pacific voyagers 800 years ago to contemporary artists in Aotearoa and around the world today.
Sofia had a kōrero with co-author Deidre Brown about Toi Te Mana, its content, and the significance of the book.
The Royal Free is an exuberant, dark, wildly entertaining novel about death and copy editing by Carl Shuker. His previous novel, A Mistake, was released as a feature film this year, filmed in Auckland and starring Elizabeth Banks. The Royal Free comes out via Victoria University Press in June 2025.
Beth caught up with Carl about both books and his writing process
Pushing Parallels is a new group exhibition on at the Arts House Trust, Pah Homestead. Showcasing a diverse range of multidisciplinary artists from across Aotearoa, the exhibition features works from The Arts House Trust collection alongside invited artists who, although formally trained in one discipline, have ventured into new artistic territories.
Pushing Parallels encourages the artists to experiment, pushing the limits of their mediums to create a playground of colour and form to re-learn and question traditional art practices. Each room within the exhibition serves as a chapter, distinctively coloured and themed, yet interconnected through relationships between material, process, and scale.
Sofia spoke to the co-curators of Pushing Parallels, Abbie La Rooy, Kiki Hall, and Michael Prosee about the exhibition and the curation process.
The Portage Ceramic Awards is an annual exhibition of contemporary ceramics in Aotearoa, showing at Te Uru Gallery. The award was established in 2001 and embraces the rich history of working with clay in West Auckland.
Portage 2024 includes 42 works by 40 artists. Finalist works range from intimate functional objects to large-scale ephemeral installations. The concerns of the exhibited works are also diverse, embodying the natural world and the origins of clay, the intimate connection between Māori and whenua, the freedom of working with clay, and the precise technicalities of sculpting, firing, and glazing.
Beth caught up with ceramicist Peter Derksen about his practice and the exhibition.
Florence Hartigan and Shoshana McCallum chat to Alice Canton about their shows, Me, My Mother and Suzy Cato and Merely Beloved! on at the Herald Theatre from 8-10 May.
Mayen Mehta and Ryan O'Kane from Auckland Theatre Company joined Sofia in the studio to chat about Murder on the Orient Express, on at ASB Waterfront Theatre 22 April - 10 May.
John Davies joined Sofia and Beth in studio to chat about Te Tupua - The Goblin, a solo play written and performed by Davies himself. Tickets for tonight's show at Te Pou Theatre here.
Ahi Karunaharan joined Beth and Sofia in the studio to talk about a mixtape for maladies, the final chapter of Karunaharan's trilogy. The play tells the story of 17 nostalgic pop tracks which chart the deeply moving journey of Sangeetha and her family in 1950s Sri Lanka. a mixtape for maladies is on at ASB Waterfront Theatre from the 4th March. You can get your tickets here.
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