Tag: art

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Pop to Present at Auckland Art Gallery

John Daly-Peoples

Andy Warhol. Triple Elvis

Pop to Present: American Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts 

Auckland Art Gallery

November 8th 2025–March 15  2026

John Daly-Peoples

This year the Auckland Art Gallery  scored a great success with their “A century of Modern Art” exhibition sourced from the Toledo Museum of Art. Not only was it an extensive look at the art of the twentieth century but also included some significant works.

Later this year the  gallery will be looking to repeat the success of that exhibition with “Pop to Present” a major show highlighting the diverse artistic voices from the United States, spanning from1945 to the present day.

Opening in November, “Pop to Present:” will be showing American Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,  52 works reflecting eight decades of extraordinary artistic experimentation and cultural transformation in the United States. The exhibition includes abstract paintings, vibrant Pop canvases and hyper-detailed photorealist compositions along with Minimalist sculptures, richly textured pieces inspired by craft and domestic traditions, and contemporary figurative works that explore questions of identity, power and representation.

Showcasing 28 works by women and African American and Indigenous artists, the exhibition places well-known names in conversation with artists from diverse backgrounds to offer a broad and inclusive overview of recent American art. Artists featured in this comprehensive survey include Benny Andrews, Thornton Dial, Roslyn Drexler, Elaine de Kooning, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Sam Gilliam, Philip Guston, Barkley L. Hendricks, Norman Lewis, Virgil Ortiz, Howardena Pindell, Jackson Pollock, Martin Puryear, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Mark Rothko, Kiki Smith, Clyfford Still and Andy Warhol.

“Experimenting with new materials while responding to the cultural and technological shifts of their time, the artists featured in Pop to Present challenged America’s social and artistic norms in ways that are still meaningful today,” says Kenneth Brummel, Curator, International Art, Auckland Art Gallery. “The exhibition also presents a large number of works by artists rarely seen in this part of the world”

Alma Thomas. Forsythia and Pussy Willows Begin Spring

Standouts in the exhibition include” Forsythia and Pussy Willows Begin Spring” a vibrant colour-field abstraction by Alma Thomas, an iconic Pop landscape by Roy Lichtenstein, and Andy Warhol’s Triple Elvis (1963).

Warhol’s “Triple Elvis” was based on the  singer-turned-gunslinger portrait of Elvis Presley on a publicity photograph for the 1960 western Flaming Star. This public persona was ideally suited to Warhol’s aim to focus on surface appearance rather than psychological interpretation. The overlapping multiple figures suggest individual film frames and cinematic motion, while the work’s metallic background evokes Hollywood’s silver screen.

Barkley Hendricks. Sisters (Susan and Toni)

Barkley Hendricks was an American painter and photographer who revolutionized portraiture through his realist and post-modern paintings of Black Americans living in urban areas in the 1960s and 1970s. “Sisters (Susan and Toni)” is a painting of two stylish women Hendricks met in Boston belongs to a series of works with dark backgrounds, against which the bright shirts and jewellery stands out.

This work and others in the exhibition are an indication of the strength of the museum’s holdings of art by black American artists of the American South.

The museum is among the largest art museum in North America for area of exhibition space and its comprehensive art collection includes ancient art, African art and American art, British sporting art, and Himalayan art. As part of their exhibit of decorative arts the museum has the largest public display of Faberge eggs outside of Russia, owning five. It is one of the first museums in the American South to be operated by state funds.

“We are proud to share the overall breadth of the VMFA collection, and in particular the importance of the Sydney and Frances Lewis collection that anchors it”  says exhibition curators Sarah Powers and Alexis Assam the Regenia A. Perry Assistant Curator of Global and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

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Aroha Gossage. Into the Light

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Aroha Gossage, Anahera

Aroha Gossage

Into The Light

Artis Gallery

August 12 – 24

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The paintings in Aroha Gossage’s new exhibition “Into the Light” are grounded in her connection to the whenua of Pakiri, north of Auckland where she lives.

They continue Gossage’s exploration of land, light, and ancestry, the paintings serving as links between observation of her environment and reflections on her connections to the land  and to her ancestors.

Several of the works are titled after their subject matter, simple renderings of native trees –  Nikau, Macrocarpa and Manuka. These works follow in the tradition of botanical artists such as Sir Joseph Banks who identified Manuka in 1769 during his time with Captain Cook on his first voyage aboard the Endeavour and many artists have depicted trees and their flowers since then notably Emily Cumming Harris and Shane Cotton.

Aroha Gossage, Manuka

Gossage’s “Manuka” ($2700) is painted in golden tones giving it an enigmatic quality where earth and foliage are connected, creating an image which transcends the physical. ”Manuka” is part of group of four small works which have distinctive colouring, due to the earth pigments the artist has collected from sites around her local environment.

While most of her works are of botanical subjects there are a few which include figures, or at least the spirits or manifestations of figures. Rather than earthly figures they suggest ancestral presence. As the title of the show suggest these figures are journeying towards the light of a new place or a new understanding.

In the  large ”Anahera” ($9800) a caped / shrouded figure inhabits an abstract environment with traces of foligare snaking through the work. There is a sense of another world in which ancestors dwell, the paintings connecting the physicality of this world with the spirituality of the other-world .

Aroha Gossage, Light

This can also be seen in “Light” ($2700) with one indistinct form and “Tupuna” ($9800) with several shapes inhabiting a forest of trees. With the works that include figures it is noticeable that while the trees are painted with  distinctive realism the figures are indistinct and ethereal.

Some of her works such as “Witi” ($4750) have a quiet drama to them like Rita Angus’ “Tree”. ”Witi” is also impressive because of its deep red earth pigment which seems to it refer to bush fires, destruction and renewal.

Works such as “Hine” ($2700)  and “Macrocarpa” with their dark tones seem to be ghost-like images of the trees rather than mere depictions, as though  inhabiting another dimension.

The suggestion of another world is created in many of these painting by veils of overlapping colour where the air around the foliage and figures in infused with earthy tones.

There are a  couple of works which are pure landscape “Pakiri Dunes” ($9800) and “Kaitaki” ($9800).These do not have the same density or richness as the others works being descriptive with fewer  allusions to another dimension.

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Home, Land and Sea

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The Way Alone Photo credit: Stephen A’Court

Home, Land and Sea

Royal New Zealand Ballet & The New Zealand Dance Company

Kiri te Kanwa Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland

July 31

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Choreography: Stephen Baynes, Shaun James Kelly, Moss Te Ururangi Patterson
Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Philip Glass, Shayne P. Carter
Set Design: Jon Buswell (Home, Land and Sea)
Costume Design: Stephen Baynes with RNZB Costume Department, Rory William Docherty, Moss Te Ururangi Patterson with RNZB Costume Department
Lighting Design: Jon Buswell, Daniel Wilson

“Home, Land and Sea”, The Royal New Zealand Ballet’s Triple Bill featured three very different works each with a distinctive mood and choreography, all had links to the land with styles ranging from the abstract to the deeply connected.

The opening work, Stephen Baynes’ “The Way Alone” was originally performed in Hong Kong in 2008 for a Tchaikovsky programme and is a response to some of the composers lesser-known music  included some of his choral works. Firmly in the classical tradition the dancing was a direct response to the textures and rhythms of the music. the choreography emphasising the qualities of weightiness, graceful movements and subtle gestures as well as accentuating the dancer’s integration with aspects of light and shadow.

The work owed much to concepts of ritual with an elegance and refinement to the dancing which featured some beautifully articulated pas de deux and pas de trios.

The only problem with this sequence was that the recorded sound lacked the refinement of the dancing and created a disconnection between audio and visual. It was an issue that did not affect the other two works.

Chrysalis, Kate Kadow and Calum Gray Photo credit: Stephen A’Court.

After the first interval was the premiere of  Shaun James Kelly’s “Chrysalis” set to the Phillip Glass music “Metamorphosis” which was inspired by the Franz Kafka short story of  a man who wakes up to find his body has been changed to that of a large insect or chrysalis.

The setting for the dance also gave a nod to Kafka’s other work “The Trial” with various figures, some in trench coats roaming the stage, divesting themselves of items of clothing , an act which provided a clever metaphor for transformation – the shedding of skin and the emergence of the butterfly from the chrysalis.

The music features Glass at his minimalist  best with repeated phrases and  eerie looping sequences. There were also long, enigmatic  silences which were as expressive as the music and emphasised the notions of the dream, the surreal and the transformation.

The musical landscape with its abrupt, stark sounds was echoed by  the dancers with their carefully choreographed movements,  rapid changes and tense interactions.

Home, Land and Sea Photo credit: Stephen A’Court

The  third work on the programme was “Home, Land and Sea” choreographed by Moss Te Ururangi Patterson’s (Ngāti Tūwharetoa), the  Artistic Director of The New Zealand Dance Company. This was the first the Royal New Zealand Ballet has partnered with The New Zealand Dance Company with members from both companies performing.

The stage featured five panels on which were projected images linked to the dance – tāniko, vegetation, clouds and sea.

The work combined contemporary dance and kapa haka suggesting elements of journey, history and tradition.

The music for the work composed by Shayne P. Carter had a harsh quality to it which was emphasised by the dancing where there was much angularity in the gestures and movements, combining the sinuous quality of contemporary dance with the intensity and athleticism of kapa haka.

The  element of sound often associated with kapa hake -was also much in evidence – slapping, stamping and breathing, all adding to the physicality of the work.

In the latter part of the dance when the dancers became more dynamic and  the music more aggressive, the roiling mass of dancers seemed to become a force of nature transcending their human condition to become god-like in their expression.

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World Press Photo Contest: the best of photojournalism

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Image Ye Aung Thu Documenting the conflict in Burma

World Press Photo Contest

Presented by Rotary Club of Auckland

131 Queen St Auckland

Until 24 August,

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples


The World Press Photo Contest is one of the most important photographic exhibitions and has been held every year since 1955.

While the focus is on the major political, social development and changes around the world it also presents aspects of sports and culture along with the drama and humour of everyday life.

The 2025 exhibition has six worldwide regions – Africa, Asia, Europe, North & Central America, South America, and Southeast Asia & Oceania and four categories (Single, Story, Long Term Project and Open Format). The winning entries from the six regions in each category form this exhibition with four global winners chosen.

The exhibition highlights significant global events and issues through powerful photojournalism and documentary photography. This year’s exhibition, presents a diverse range of subjects, including the human cost of conflict, the impact of climate change (like the Amazon droughts), political events, and stories of human resilience and cultural identity.

The exhibition rarely shows New Zealand work  but this year the Belarusian, New Zealand based photographer Tatsiana Chypsanava is included with her award-winning group of photographs titled “Te Urewera The living ancestor of the Tuhoe people” which includes is an image of Tama Iti.

The top honour for 2025 was awarded to Samar Abu Elouf’s haunting image of nine-year-old Mahmoud Ajjour, who lost both arms in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City.

Image by Samar Abu Elouf

The exhibition includes a special display marking 70 years of World Press Photo, offering a look back at the evolution of photojournalism and its impact.

Donald Trump is the focus of a work by Jabin Botsford showing members of the US Secret Service helping Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump off stage moments after a bullet hit his ear during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show Grounds, Pennsylvania

Image by Jabin Botsford

Mosab Abushama’s image of a groom at his wedding in Omdurman, Sudan, where weddings are traditionally  announced with celebratory gunfire. He asked a friend to document his wedding on his cellphone in a city constantly targeted by airstrikes.

image by Mosab Abushama

Gaby Oráa photograph shows Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado as she greets supporters during a campaign rally in 2024. She was barred from running and as a result, she endorsed the former ambassador as the opposition’s candidate and led his political campaign across the country.

Image Gaby Oráa

Brazil’s Gabriel Medina was captured by Jérôme Brouillet as he bursts out triumphantly from a large wave in the fifth heat of round three of men’s surfing, during the Olympic surfing at Teahupo’o, Tahiti, French Polynesia  in 2024.

Jérôme Brouillet

The exhibition is brought to Auckland by the Rotary Club of Auckland as a fundraiser for charity. This year the profits will go to Rotary youth programmes, interact and Rotaract, and PHAB an inclusive organisation dedicated to empowering individuals with disabilities.

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The Art of Banksy

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Banksy, Girl with a balloon

The Art of Banksy

Hunua Rooms, Aotea Centre

Until  3 Aug.

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The Art of Banksy, is a  major exhibition of the artist’s work which has now been seen by 1.5 million visitors in 18 cities around  the world.

The collection of 150 original and authenticated works features more than 150 pieces, including prints, canvases, unique works, and ephemera.

There are several versions of his well-known pieces such as the “Girl with a balloon” and “Flower Thrower,” also known as “Love is in the Air,”

As with many of his works Banky borrows from other sources, changing the original intention, subverting the original meaning as well as trawling the world for the symbols and highlights in other artworks.

So, there are references, adaptations and reworkings of Christian iconography, news photographs, Disney images along with the work of Andy Warhol, Keith Harring and even Degas.

Banksy, Ballerina with Action Man parts

It is the clever borrowing of images which appeals to adult audiences as well as well as children and his images which undermine capitalism will bring a smile to both to the conservative as well as the revolutionary.

The exhibition spans his output from the 1990’s to the present-day showing examples of his satirical and subversive output  often appearing in public places around the world.

His iconic artwork depicting a masked figure or rioter, about to throw a bunch of flowers is taken for a newspaper image of a rioter throwing a projectile. This substitution is an obvious message advocating for love and peace over conflict and war.

Banksy, Trolley Hunters

There are other works like “Trolley Hunters” that satirize consumerism by depicting cavemen hunting shopping trolleys instead of wild animals. As well as being a clever juxtaposition of elements it is also a commentary on how modern society has become overly reliant on mass-produced goods and detached from nature.

Banksy, Souvenirs

Some of his work has more immediacy such as the several works related to his Walledoff Hotel in Bethlehem including some hand painted souvenirs. There are also images of his “Dismaland”, his take on Disney World ,creating a dystopian “bemusement park” located at the Tropicana in Weston-Super-Mare in 2015.

The exhibition also helps expand our understanding of the artist with numerous quotes by the artist about his history and approach to his work along with commentary by some of his collaboratives.

While here are many of his famous work there are also some of his original pencil sketches for the finished works

The works in the exhibition show that Banksy can be viewed  from various perspectives – a cartoonist, a comic, a satirist, an agent provocateur or an  advertising guru,

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Grace Wright, Grand Illusions

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Grace Wright, The Truth Is In The Depths

Grace Wright

Grand Illusions

Gow Langsford, Onehunga

Until July 19

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

“In the beginning how the heavens and earth

Rose out of Chaos:”

John Milton “Paradise Lost”

John Miltons lines at the beginning of Paradise Lost provide a succinct description of Grace Wrights suite of paintings in her show Grand Illusions. Equally the description of Charles Albury’s who was an observer of the effects of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima are also applicable – “We watched that cloud rise. It had every colour of the world up there, beautiful colours. To me it looked like salmon colours, blues, greens.”

Theses impressions  of shape, design and colour are something we also see in  the  images of the heavens taken by NASA revealing what appears to be chaos in the Milky Way and other galaxies.

Grace Wright, The Causes of Seeds, Plants and Fruit

Wright’s paintings conjure up a range of associations, from the of cosmic to the microscopic with some of her images  linked to brain scans and the flares of neurological synapses as in her “The Causes of Seeds Plants and Fruit”.

As with her previous work the artist explores the confluence between abstraction, symbolism and realism with a colour palette echoing the renaissance masters as well as the great Impressionist.

Grace Wright, On the Disposition which Characterizes the Wise

With a lot of her work she appears to have a contemporary take on the Baroque with images such as  “On the Disposition which Characterise the Wise)” with its drama and exuberance. Here the brush strokes suggesting the writhing bodies of baroque paintings in the paintings of Giovanni Battista Gaulli, at the Il Gesu church in Rome.

With “Cosmology” there is a sense of floating diaphanous fabrics in pastel colours while works like “The Causes of Atmospheric Phenomena provide a sense of dramatic skies after a storm .

Grace Wright, Cosmology

The small lively brushstrokes in several of the works suggest small birds in flight (On the Beauty of Song” or carefully described shell forms (Projections). These lively brushstrokes also make the viewer aware of following the mark making of the artist, both the small tentative marks as well as the grand gestures.

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Ruth Cleland’s exploration of the enigmatic quality of concrete

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Ruth Cleland Concrete 3

Ruth Cleland, Concrete

Sumer Fine Art

Until July 22

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

In her latest exhibition ”Concrete” Ruth Cleland continues her interest in the accurate depiction of her environment along with the use of the grid.

Gridding is a technique that has been used by many artists throughout history using horizontal and vertical lines over drawings or photographs for enlargement and transfer purposes.

Cleland uses a grid to transfer images of concrete floors onto board using either graphite pencil or acrylic. These images such as “Concrete Floor 3” ($12,8000) show the polished concrete surface with imbedded scoria along with signs of previous uses and marks.

The works are akin to the work of the Boyle Family who randomly chose sites or parts of the body which they then recreated, the completed work offering new interpretations of the environment or body.

These images of concrete floors could be of the floor of the gallery with its various  sections of ground and polished concrete laid over the years. They are in fact of a supermarket floor that the artist has previously used as subject matter. One image, “Concrete Path” ($12,800) has a more personal connection being the concrete path outside the artist’s home.

These images of concrete are meticulous in their accuracy but the artist shows her skill in the depiction of both ambient light sources as well as overhead lights.

Ruth Cleland, Concrete Floor 1
Ruth Cleland Gris (Concrete Floor 1)

In some cases there is a companion piece to the photorealistic image as with “Concrete Floor 1” and “Grid / Concrete Floor 1” ($12,800 pair). The lines drawn on the grid have been used here to indicate the striations seen in the drawing as well as light intensity. This recording adds to the enigmatic nature of the work suggesting there is an underlying plan or logic inherent in the image itself which the artist has revealed.

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Rarely seen American and European art at the Auckland Art Gallery

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Auguste Renoir, Road at Wargemont, 1879, Toledo Museum of Art, Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

A Century of Modern Art

Auckland Art Gallery  

June 7 – September 28

John Daly-Peoples

A Century of Modern Art which has just opened at the Auckland Art Gallery is one of the most significant exhibitions mounted by the gallery in the last few years. It is on loan from the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, and provides  a survey of the major artists who transformed modern art  from the mid nineteenth century to the mid twentieth century.

The exhibition features 57 works by 53 artists, including Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Helen Frankenthaler, Édouard Manet, William Merritt Chase, Amedeo Modigliani, Berthe Morisot, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro, Robert Rauschenberg, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, James McNeill Whistler, among others.

The Toledo Art Museum was established and funded by Edward Drummond Libby and still has a substantial Endowment Trust in his name . The endowment has some $330 million and a budget of more than $20 million a year,. Many of the works in the exhibition were gifted by Libby or acquired through the Libbey Endowment.

Georges Braque, Still Life with Fish, 1941, Toledo Museum of Art, Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Some of the Impressionist / Post Impressionist works by artists such as Renoir, van Gogh, Morisot and Gauguin are major works whle some of them are of unfamiliar subjects such as Renoir’s ”Road at Wargemont”

Several of the works are excellent examples of their work such as van Gogh’s “Wheat Fields with Reaper, Auvers” and Monet’s Water Lilies of 1922, one of the many images of the flower he created in his later years.

The show also features some unfamiliar names of American artists such as Luther Emerson van Gorder whose “Flower Market, Paris” (late 19ht century) could be mistaken for a Pissarro.

Flower Market, PLuther Emerson, Van Gorder, Flower Market, Paris, late 19th century- early 20th century. Toledo Museum of Art, Gift of the artist

The small Whistler work ”Crepuscule in Opal, Trouville” of 1865 is an interesting inclusion in the show, the landscape with its slash of colour is an almost abstract work

Among the more contemporary work is Helen Frankenthaler “Blue Jay” painted at a transition time between paintings of organic forms and colour field paintings. There is also a Morris Louis whose work has not been seen in Auckland since his large exhibition at the gallery in 1971

Helen Frankenthaler, Blue Jay, 1963, Toledo Museum of Art, Gift of The Woodward Foundation

There are also works by artists who we rarely see but whose work shows high level of sophistication such as Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Red, Blue, Yellow, Black, and Gray”, László Moholy-Nagy’s ”Am2”, and Max Beckmann’s “The Trapeze”.

Max Beckmann, German, 1884-1950; The Trapeze; 1923; oil on canvas;H: 77 3/8 in. (196.5 cm); W: 33 1/8 in. (84 cm);Toledo Museum of Art; 1983.20;

There are a few important American artists  as Stanton Macdonald-Wright who was one of the early American abstract artists and his  “Synchromy, Blue-Green”, of  1916 is  an example of the abstraction which developed in America in the early twentieth century.

Other American artists in the show include Gertrude Glass Green  who was an important constructivist artist and Grace Hartigan who was a  member of the New York School in the 1950’s and 60’s.

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Black Grace’s Rage Rage: focussed and potent dance

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Black Grace , Company B Image; Jinki Cambronero

Rage Rage

Black Grace, Company B

Hunua Room

Aotea Centre

Until June 5

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

For Black Grace’s “Rage Rage” the Aotea Centre’s Hunua Room was set up with a high catwalk built through the centre of the space.

Was this nod to Dylan Thomas’s “Rage rage against the dying of the light” or a personal rage of Neil Ieremias. His work has always had an element of the personal and the political with works which are confrontational both between the performers themselves and between performers and audience.

Up to a couple of dozen performers race around the stage, in waves of massed groups, performing a series of linked dances to a range of music from traditional Samoan to contemporary rap.

Like all Ieremia’s shows this was a high energy and relentless performance combining many of the elements of his previous explorations in dance.

There is the hand clapping, foot stomping, the falls / collapses, hand movements like a form of deaf signing and arms used as a kind of semaphore.

The various sequences are introduced by Strictly Brown founders Leki Jackson-Bourke and Saale Ilaua who reminisce about their time at school, favourite TV and films and playground games. These reminiscences lead the company into surges of movement.

The sounds are a mixture of the traditional and the modern as the dancers negotiate issues of the present which are rooted in the past. Some of these are addressed in the latter part – Covid, climate change and the future of Tuvalu.

Many of routines seem based on the schoolyard ‘game’ of Rush, some of which morph into fights or just dissipate.

The final sequence is a mix of despair and celebration danced to a nihilistic vocal soundtrack-

“I don’t belong here

I’m a weirdo

What the hell am I doing here”

With the refrain

You don’t belong here

Which encapsulates so .much feeling and emotion focused on the emptiness of contemporary life.

Like much of Black Grace dances there is a tension and drama created by the action and reaction, between rapid movement and calm, between a zombie-like state and intense animation.

Throughout the performances there is an awareness of the beauty and intensity of the dance and the strange conflicting visceral and abstract nature of the dancing which underlines Ieremia’s ability to create dance which is focused and potent

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Mark Adams: Photographs across time and cultures

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Mark Adams A survey — He kohinga whakaahua

Mark Adams and Sarah Farrar

Massey University Press

80.00

Mark Adams: A Survey | He Kohinga Whakaahua

Auckland Art Gallery

Until August 17

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The current exhibition “Mark Adams: A Survey | He Kohinga Whakaahua” is the artists first comprehensive exhibition of his work and features more than 65 works spanning his 50-years as a photographer. documenting the land, the people and its history. These photographs are of places across the Pacific, the United Kingdom and Europe.

Much of his practice documenting sites of significance across the country, include places where Captain James Cook and his crew came ashore on their visits in 1769 and the 1770s, as well as locations where Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed in 1840.

Over the decades, Adams has sustained a deep and ongoing engagement with subjects of interest. He has photographed whakairo Māori (Māori carving) both here and overseas and the work of, Samoan master tattoo artists, Māori–Pākehā interactions in Rotorua, carved meeting houses, locations of significance for Ngāi Tahu in Te Waipounamu and  the place of museums and photography in the area of cross-cultural exchange.


It includes photographs taken across the Pacific, the United Kingdom and Europe that explore the migration of artistic and cultural practices across the globe, and examine the role of museums, and photography itself, in the ongoing area of cross-cultural exchange.

The various sections of the book show Adams’ range of work from his early works, his focus on Rotorua, tatau, Treaty Signing Sites, Museums, Cooks Sites Māori meeting house in overseas locations, Te Waipounamu and his more recent interest in Photograms.

Several of his multi-image work are fascinating in their scope and production but the book does not do them credit, even when spread across several pages. With these works the exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery make an impression in some cases filling an entire wall of the gallery. “0 degrees” is such  a work, a  panoramic 360-degree set of images taken at Greenwich Park which includes the Royal Observatory, the home of Greenwich Mean Time and Prime Meridian.

Other works on a grand scale  include  his “Nine Fathoms Passage”, the photographers view replicating William Hodges view of Dusky Sound, and his panorama of the  meeting house, Hinemihi in the grounds of Clandon Park in Surrey, England as well as the magnificent meeting house Rauru in the Museum am Rothenbaum in Hamburg.

Mark Adams, 13.11.2000. Hinemihi. Clandon Park. Surrey. England. Ngā tohunga whakairo: Wero Tāroi, Tene Waitere, 2000, colour inkjet prints, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of the Patrons of the Auckland Art Gallery, 2014.

Author of the book Sarah Farrar says “You could say that, in many respects, Mark has been ahead of his time as a Pākehā and Palagi artist. But what does that really mean — to be ‘early’ or ‘ahead of one’s time’? It’s all relative and I’m sure many people would view a respectful approach to tangata whenua and tangata o le moana as seriously overdue.”

Adams’ photographs are of exceptional quality and intriguing in their distinctive approach to subject matter. The viewer is challenged to interpret , question and reflect on them. One commentator, Damian Skinner has noted that Adams photographs “offer no resolution, only problems. They patiently track the material traces of various forces that coalesce in specific sites”.

Mark Adams, 19.05.1989. Te Ana o Hineraki. Moa Bone Point Cave. Redcliffs. Ōtautahi Christchurch. Te Waipounamu South Island, 1989, gold-toned silver bromide fibre-based prints, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of the Patrons of the Auckland Art Gallery, 2014.

Generally, with photographs of important sites the photographer is essentially saying – “I was here – this is how it looks”. However, with many of Mark Adams photographs of historical sites, the land seems of little interest, often devoid of figures. With these the photographer seems to be saying “this is how it looked”. The photographs require the viewer to transport themselves back to that place but in another time.

Sarrah Farrar notes “His photographs of museums and art galleries remind me of the artifice and stagecraft that we are actively involved in as curators and museum professionals. Every decision we make communicates something to audiences. We construct meaning through the selection of objects (even those that are absent), their placement and their interpretation. Mark’s photographs remind me of the power dynamics and knowledge systems that are inscribed in museum, library and art gallery experiences — even embedded into the design of the buildings themselves. A great example of this is Mark’s panorama of the science-fiction-like modernist design of Berlin’s Staatsbibliothek, which feels so at odds with the fact that it’s the home of the journals of Georg Forster, the naturalist who travelled with James Cook on his second voyage.”

Mark Adams, 1988. Hori Korei. George Grey monument. Albert Park. Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, 1988, silver bromide print, courtesy of the artist.

The book is a stylish, superbly-designed production with over 200 images, mainly black and white. It features  an excellent text by Sarah Farrar as well as a forward by Ngahuia te Awekotuku and afterword by Nichlos Thomas