An exhibition of pastel paintings and photography reflecting ordinary people's lives in China up to 40 years ago.
China Stands on Their Shoulders is an homage to the ordinary people of China, especially rural people. It is created from images from photographs I took while living in China, especially the Northwest regions, up to 40 years ago. It shows daily life and gives an insight to what life was like for much of China's population that time.
I hope this exhibition is a starting point for intergenerational conversations or at least a nostalgic trip for some. It shows us the fundamentals of daily life are the same the world over regardless of time passing.
CONTACT
Instagram: @k.langart
Facebook: K.Lang Art
Image:
Karen Lang, Woman is half the sky, pastel, 500x700mm
It Doesn’t Seem of the Body at All is an aspiration of all things of the bodies. Body of earth, body of work, body of water. Writing with the body, sounding with the body, sighting with the body.
A multidisciplinary exhibition/installation comprising photographs, video, live performance, sound, and public participation.
ARTISTS
Jazmine Rose Phillips is a performance artist, sound designer, and musician. They seek to embrace the grit and beauty of the human experience. Their creations use pleasure, pain, sound, spoken word, film, ritual, and the body to evoke and embody transparency and healing, often motivated by the destruction we all take part in as humans. Jazmine performs under the moniker Jazmine Mary. They won the best independent Debut Award for their album in 2022 and have toured their music internationally. They have performed in galleries across Aotearoa as well as India, Australia, China, France, and Thailand.
Antonia Barnett McIntosh is a composer-performer, sound artist, editor, and curator. She has collaborated extensively with musicians, theatre and filmmakers, dancers, visual artists, and poets. Antonia’s works gently tap at the borders of speech and music, performance and rehearsal, composition and writing, juxtaposing the formalities of presentation and the aesthetics of failure. Antonia’s music has been performed in Europe, the UK, Scandinavia, the US, Australia, and Aotearoa.
EVENTS
Opening with performances - 6pm, Wednesday 6 August
Closing with readings - 4pm, Saturday 9 August
Tēnā koe,
Ko Māia-te-oho Holman-Wharehoka tōku ingoa, he uri ahau nō Te Ātiawa, Taranaki, me Te Arawa hoki.
Part of my mahi is working for Love Rimurimu, a giant kelp restoration project looking to restore the kelp forest within Te Whanganui a Tara. Within this project, I lead a piece of research that looks at how natural fibres traditionally used by my tūpuna such as harakeke, muka, pīngao, etc. can be used in the restoration of our kelp forests.
I have been documenting different processes along the way including with microscopic photographs of spores attached to my muka and pīngao ropes, as well as underwater photographs of the kelplings thriving on muka rope in Worser Bay after planting out in 2024.
This installation is a self-portrait made up of 100s of things found on the streets that I have walked on in my life. The start of the installation is things I collected when I was a child, mainly in Helensville (where I grew up) and the surrounding areas. This then flows into the things that I have found as an adult living in Wellington. The tail end of the piece are things that people have found on the street and given to me. The installation takes its form from the Kaipara River that runs through the centre of Helensville. I moved to Wellington 3 years ago to study Arts Management, and although I really love living here, no matter how long I stay I will never have the same connection to it that I do to Helensville.
CONTACT
Instagram: @mmmorgan.dean
Simon Olsen paints to celebrate the beauty around and within us - to inspire gratitude for what shouldn’t be taken for granted. He says: “Gratitude is what creating art requires of me, and fosters in me, including for how miraculous our human, natural and spiritual natures are.”
Olsen’s practice explores techniques where he applies paint in multiple layers, with the canvas rotated for gravity to work it in different directions. This creates texture, and an illusion of movement.
His exhibition and practice are grappling with questions such as: “Why might we need things to appear more surreal, bold or colourful, to remember how wonderful they actually are?”
EVENT
FREE public painting co-lab - open for the duration of the exhibition. Anyone can add brush strokes to a large canvas. A collaborative painting will emerge, to engage people in a creative process that values diversity, unity and connection.
CONTACT
Email: simonolsen@gmail.com
Instagram: @simonsverreolsen
#WellingtonArtist #ExpressionistPainting #GratitudeForWonder
Space Age is a love letter to California and a study of colour, design, architecture and light. With a collection of framed photography work from Los Angeles and Palm Springs and bold acrylic paintings inspired by mid-century design. This body of work is a peek into my inner-world, a nostalgic dreamscape that can act as a portal to the desert.
CONTACT
Website: bellafosterart.com
Instagram: @bellafoster.art
Facebook: Bella Foster Art
Images
Bella Foster, California Sober, acrylic paint
Bella Foster, Limoncello, editioned photograph, 2/20
Bella Foster, Conversation Pit, acrylic paint
This Thistle Hall Exhibition features three Wellington-based visual artists, each with a unique style and perspective on creativity: Jenny Martin, Lindsay Blakeley and Rebecca Mooney. Their friendship unites them, highlighting the importance of community support among artists, whanau, and the broader community. Together, they inspire and elevate one another.
Jenny Martin’s paintings explore profound themes and social issues through imaginative worlds and still life. Her vibrant work challenges societal ideals and surface-level beauty.
Lindsay Blakeley's painting is deeply influenced by the vibrant energy of her natural surroundings, particularly the interaction between the land and sea. She works mainly in acrylic, with some mixed media.
Rebecca Mooney’s practice has always been informed by physical engagement with the landscape, particularly through walking. She is interested in how art can make us conscious of our place in the world.
CONTACT
Instagram: @theart.of.friendship
Images
Rebecca Mooney Dancing with the Universe
Jenny Martin Closer Than You Are
Lindsay Blakely After the Rain
Some describe the night garden as a magical state, existing between waking and sleeping. It can be a place of romance or mystery, solitude or companionship. The day’s work is done and we can just be.
As night slowly envelops us, the garden’s beauty is also tinged with the possibility of danger. The temperature cools. In our relaxed state of contemplation we are perhaps lulled into a false sense of security.
The night garden is also a place of heightened scents and sounds. The memory of the daylight garden is retained, with echoes of daytime colours overlaying what we perceive. Form takes a more prominent place. There is blurring. As night falls, the spectrum of pinks, blues and violets are especially beautiful, and the sunset colours take our attention as they are seen fleetingly in the sky. The sky dominates. Greens darken, yellows and whites become vibrant, the complementary colours such as blue and yellow sing off each other. Red takes a backseat, but doesn’t disrupt our adaptation to darkness. Finally, the spectrum of black and white takes over.
We seek shelter indoors.
We are students and tutors from Inverlochy Art School exhibiting a diversity of works in response to the above and the overall theme of Nature.
Inverlochy exists as a community art school offering a range of classes for people of all ages and abilities. Our teaching covers both formal aspects of an art practice as well as a more open approach allowing for experimentation and discovery of new ways of expression.
This exhibition spans contemporary painting and ceramics and includes two original prints by acclaimed artist, John Drawbridge, a key figure at Inverlochy in the 1990s.
All artworks are available for purchase through silent auction. In the spirit of supporting artists, the majority of proceeds will go to the artists, with the remainder contributing to Inverlochy Art School's accessibility project; an initiative aiming to create wheelchair access and facilities in the historic school building.
Bidding will be open throughout the week with a final bidding event taking place on Sunday 29 June, from 4-6 pm.
EVENT
Sunday 29 June, 4 - 6pm
Fundraiser Art Auction
Raising money to complete works creating wheelchair access and facilities at Inverlochy Art School.
CONTACT
Website: www.inverlochy.org.nz
Email: inverlochyartschool@gmail.com
Phone: 04 939 2177
Instagram: @inverlochyartschool
Facebook: InverlochyArtSchool
Images
John Drawbridge, Two Women, mezzotint on paper, (1995)
Debbie Rawnsley, Pine Song, acrylic, medium and oil on canvas
A biotic vector from the evolutionary past to the fossil detritus of pop-culture, rendered in high contrast black and white traditional inks. Inspired by William S. Burroughs' novel The Soft Machine.
EVENTS
Open evening
Friday 20 June, 5pm
CONTACT
Instagram: @eels_and_things
Lōemis festival art show and markets. Showcasing the works of multiple artists, call in anytime, browse, hang around, grab a coffee, and chat to the artists!
ARTISTS
Ben Klocek, Datura Child, Katrina Rogers, Bill Hunt, Tomollusk, James Costin / Serpent Dream, Thorn Richards, Keri-Mei Zagrobelna, Pepper Raccoon, Dirt Child Design, Dark Harbour Yarn, Antoinette Ratcliffe, Mumu Moore, The Kelpery, Disintegration Silver, Chimera's Wunderkammer, Medusa's Eye Tarot, Jess Stab / Hex Products, Mud + Moss, curated by Kelda Morris
EVENTS
Opening - Wednesday 11 June, 6pm
RSVP essential - email to kelda@dirtchilddesign.com
Market Events: Friday 13 June, 5-8pm
Saturday 14 June, 10-4pm
CONTACT
Website: www.loemis.nz
Instagram: @loemisfestival
Facebook: Lōemis
#Loemis #Loemis2025
Images
Glass art, Dirt Child Design @dirtchilddesign
Static TV illustration, Tomollusk @tomollusk
Butterfly, Ben Klocek @hes_zack
GALLERY EVENTS
Tuesday 27 May
- 11am, OPENING Toiri Taonga Puoro
- 3 - 6pm, DJ Panda and friends
Wednesday 28 May
- 12.15pm, Patricia Given: Creating Community; Soup
- 5 - 6pm, Jessica Browning: Harp
Thursday 29 May
- 12.15pm, Deidra McMenamin; Money talks
- 4 - 6pm, Forum theatre; Co-Operative Supermarket
Friday 30 May
- 12.15pm, Deidra McMenamin; Peace talks
- 3pm, Shannon performance poetry
- 5 - 6pm, Forum theatre what does a peaceful future look like?
Saturday 31 May
- 11am, Flightless fairy, Scot songs
- 12pm, Heart talks and Heart listens quiet creative conversation and healing
- 2pm, Jun Yuan Guqin
- 4 - 6pm, Laurence Boomert Community game
Sunday 1 June
- 12pm, Breathwork, mindfulness, silent creative processes
- 3pm, Toiri Taonga Puoro
- 5pm, CLOSING
CONTACT
Facebook: Deirdra McMenamin
Every shipwreck has a story to tell, and every shipwreck is undergoing a fundamental transformation. With artworks and stories by Neil Johnstone and poetry by Janis Freegard, this exhibition is a meditation on those strange, liminal spaces that continue to fascinate, alchemise and promise long-lost treasures.
Neil’s work has been created over the course of 15 years – some of it before migrating from Scotland to New Zealand eight years ago but most of it since. This will be the first viewing of all the pieces and poems. The artworks will all be for sale to take away at the end of the exhibition, for what Neil’s wife considers a very reasonable price :D
In addition to the exhibition itself, there is a collaborative limited-edition book of poetry, stories and art.
EVENTS
Opening night and book launch: Tuesday 20 May, 6 - 8pm
Live music performance with Erika Grant: Friday 23, 6.30pm
CONTACT
artbyneilinprogress.wordpress.com
Our exhibition seeks to explore the multifaceted nature of femininity, each exploring our own identity as women. Through painting and sculpture, our multivalent works use flowers and drapery as common motifs, synthesising concepts between each artist. Our exhibition aims to highlight a broad range of aspects of feminine identity and embraces a comprehensive exploration – from grotesque, discomforting, moody, and provocative, to ornate, ‘girly’ and ethereal.
CONTACT
Instagram: @inflorescence_exhibition
Handcrafted creativity shaped by nature
Join us for an intimate look into the creative world of mother-daughter duo Marie & Katie Pickering, artists inspired by the beauty of rural New Zealand.
Marie – With over 30 years of experience in all things craft, her artistry spans painting, needle felting, and beyond. Her work brings imagination to life through texture, color, and detail.
Katie – A fibre & fabric artist with a deep passion for natural dyeing and all things botanical. Inspired by the land, she explores colour through plants,creating unique, organic impressions.
Living in Central Hawke’s Bay, their work is deeply connected to the landscapes, flora, and natural rhythms of Aotearoa.
CONTACT
Email: earthandeasecreative@gmail.com
Instagram: @earthandseacreative
Facebook: Softearth Art
Stephen Burke's solo exhibition showcases sculptures that intertwine light, colour, and form.
Influenced by his travels through Egypt and the Mediterranean and his life in Barcelona where the visionary works of Gaudi inspired awe and wonder, Stephen’s designs reflect a passion for geometry and symmetry, that incorporate ‘unapologetic’ colour.
His hand-painted plywood sculptures, such as Camouflage and Hope feature reflective acrylic mirrors drawing viewers into infinite depths.
Fabricated acrylic pieces like Out of Blue Comes Green and Danced in the Fire explore the interplay of transparency opacity, and colour, and utilise mirrors for reflective effect, while on the panels of the sculpture Earthsong he layers acrylic paint in a collage format as if to represent leaves or petals.
This exhibition invites contemplation of the balance between structure, form, and colour.
CONTACT
Website: www.stephenburkedesigns.com/sculptures
Email: stephen@stephenburkedesigns.com
Instagram: @stephenburkedesigns
Images
THE UNFOLDED COLLECTION AT A GLANCE
TRIFECTA - THE THREE SMALL UNFURLING PLYWOOD SCULPTURES
COLOUR PALETTES - THE THREE TRILLIUM ACRYLIC SCULPTURES
Marble & Mud is a creative manifestation of my identify examined under the lens of my Greek whakapapa. Years of exploring my relationship with my heritage and upbringing have brought rise to the same core themes with an undeniable flow, be it in icons, colours, symbols or sound. This exhibition will be a collage of visual art, showing mixed media, textiles, writing, projection and performance art.
My experience of self within the Greek diaspora is layered with love and pain, beauty and rejection. My gender, sexuality, purpose and ways of being both clash in conflict and yearn in longing for home. Processing inherited trauma, internalised colonisation and cultural displacement currently sits in a dreamscape of classical pop art, stories from the village, and where I find myself between the Marble and Mud.
WORKSHOPS
Wednesday 24 April: 6.30pm
Automatic Drawing
Koha entry
Thursday 25 April: 6.30 - 8.30pm
Craft an Evil Eye Charm
$30, limit to 8 people
CONTACT
Instagram: @eleftheria_pnevma
Images:
Matai Masks
Ovulation Automation
Pōneke Portals is a group show featuring a series of installations inspired by portals. Rather than transporting visitors to another place or time, these portals resist the pull of elsewhere, returning attention to the here and now. The installations invite relationality with more-than-human worlds and counter-colonial ways of seeing. Each portal-based work becomes an opening—amplifying encounters in the present moment while acknowledging the past and possible futures of Pōneke and its surrounding lands.
ARTISTS
Featuring works by Lu Li, Daniel Coombes, Leandro Lopez, and Shannon Xiao in collaboration with Irihāpeti Hokianga Te Aho, Te Motu Kairangi, Native Land Digital, Posthuman Nexus, & Temporary Show.
CONTACT
Lu Li: Instagram @luli_lilu
Daniel Coombes: danregcoombes@gmail.com
Leandro Lopez: LinkedIn
Shannon Xiao: shannonxiao@temporaryshow.com
Images:
Lu Li
Daniel Coombes
Leandro Lopez
Shannon Xiao
The Creative Itch's week of arty adventures & Sparkle Debacle Events! Celebrating Wellington communities and exploring the creative beings we ALL are.
10am-5pm Daily: Check out the evolving exhibition, meet the artists, see the creative process in action, and have a creative crack in the ‘Creative Brewings’ space.
EVENTS
Arty Farty Closing Celebration Party
Sunday 13 April, 2 - 4pm
Come for a celebratory drink, nibble and WHOOP at Wellington’s ‘Walls of Wonder/ful’ developed over the week!
WORKSHOPS
To book: message @the.creative.itch.collective or email: the.creative.itch.collective@gmail.com
Activities are FREE, koha appreciated
Glitter Bomb Collage
Wednesday, 5pm - 6.30pm
Bond with buddies (old or shiny-just-met new) over a pile of magazines, chop and glue to your imaginations content.
Pillow Talk
Thursday, 6pm - 8pm
Art on Pillowcases - Exploring the complexity, beauty, joy and pain of childbirth and supporting families through.
Figure Drawing -Drag 'n 'Drop
Friday, 7 - 9pm
This workshop celebrates clothed figure drawing, diversity and creative expression.
CONTACT
Instagram: @the.creative.itch.collective
Email: the.creative.itch.collective@gmail.com
If you find yourself on Cuba Street on a Friday night and spot a pack of photographers poking their lenses into shop windows, it means one of two things: either Taylor Swift has added Wellington to her latest tour and the paparazzi have turned up; or the Wellington Lens Club is on their fortnightly photo walk in the CBD.
The WLC has an unusual history. It was launched nearly two years ago by vintage lens collector and restorer Benni Krueger as “The Vintage Lens Club.” But what was meant to be a small regional group quickly drew nearly 40,000 members in more than 20 countries. A new group for locals only was spun off, and they’ve been roaming the streets of the city ever since. While the WLC is a private group, membership is open to photographers at every level so long as they live in or regularly spend time in the Wellington area. See Wellington Lens Club Meetups on Facebook.
For this exhibition, entitled Our City, all the photos in the show were captured within a few blocks of the venue, and the project is meant to be a love letter to the city that the members call home.
While the exhibiting photographers use all manner of cameras and lenses, the group encourages the use of older and experimental glass, not all of which was designed for still photography. Some of the photos in the exhibition were shot with lenses originally designed for vintage cinema projectors, x-ray machines, aerial reconnaissance and even military tanks.
The WLC’s mission is to capture the capital's diversity and dynamism, its daily life and its vibrant culture. Each photographer will be showcasing their own unique approach and perspective, and this will be reflected in the variety of images on show.
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Benni Kruger, Mick Brady, Judith Dickson, John Kelly, Jon Kroll, Nico Li, Lola Makower, Ryan Owens, Kevin Peng, Emi Reed, Joshua Schönberger, Jeff Mein Smith, Rob Vanderpoel
Those with interest in the event are encouraged to follow the club’s Instagram account. Photos by the exhibiting photographers will be posted in the days leading up to the exhibition.
CONTACT
Instagram: @wellingtonlensclub
Facebook: Wellington Lens Club Meetups
Images:
Poster image - Jon Kroll
Jeff Mein Smith, Mazda Girls
Joshua Schönberger, Self Portrait - the Unknown Outsider
Woe Plush Be Upon Ye! is a surreal collision of the internet meme landscape and the gallery space; a fun display of mixed media artworks by twelve local and international artists that aims to celebrate internet pop culture through one viral anime plush toy.
ARTISTS
AR-EM BAÑAS, JOAQUIN BELISARIO, JUSTIN CHEUNG, SARA FERNÁNDEZ, BECKY HADLOW, EVA HU, CICI LI, SKYE LIU TIANZI, MAYA LOUW, EMILY SELFE, DAYOON SONG, OSCAR VAN HEST
WORKSHOP
Still Life Drawing Session
Saturday 29 March, 1pm
FREE ENTRY
CONTACT
Instagram: @woeplushbeuponye
Facebook: Woe, Plush Be Upon Ye
Tumblr: woeplushbeuponye