9 Mar 2023

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Works by contemporary artists Peter Robinson (Ngāi Tahu) and Salote Tawale are amongst those being showcased in two new exhibitions opening on Saturday 11 March at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū.

Die Cuts and Derivations, 11 March – 2 July

Image above - Peter Robinson Die Cuts and Derivations 2015. Cut wool felt. Private collection. Image courtesy of the artist and Coastal Signs.

A new exhibition takes celebrated contemporary artist Peter Robinson’s colourful sculpture Die Cuts and Derivations as the starting point for an exploration of the city’s art collection.  

Robinson’s expansive installation features a range of cut wool felt shapes arranged on the floor and walls of a gallery space. 

Peter Robinson was born in Ashburton and studied sculpture at Ilam school of Fine Arts in the 1980s. 

“This is an energetic and surprising show that offers visitors an immersive experience,” says Curator Felicity Milburn. 

A variety of other works have been selected from the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū collection to show alongside Robinson’s work.

“Four of the Gallery’s curators worked together to choose works that reveal how artists explore and play with shape and space, form and absence,” says Ms Milburn. 

“There’s a wide range of art on show, from sculptural installations to a fibre work made using whenua (earth) pigments and also some exquisite pencil drawings. We’ve also included some recent acquisitions never seen here in Ōtautahi before.” 

Some of the other artists with works in the exhibition include Pauline Rhodes, Oliver Perkins, Nikau Hindin and Neil Dawson, whose eye-fooling suspended sculpture Seascape is on show for the first time since 1994.   

Salote Tawale: Ripple, 11 March – 2 July

Salote Tawale Ripple work in progress 2023. Mixed media. Courtesy of the artist

Indigeneity, culture and identity are explored in a new exhibition from contemporary artist Salote Tawale opening at Te Puna o Waiwhetū Christchurch Art Gallery on Saturday 11 March. 

Ripple is the first solo exhibition from the Fijian-Australian artist to be featured in New Zealand.  

“It’s wonderful to be able to show a new body of work from Tawale that includes pieces created right here in Ōtautahi, during her residency at Sutton House,” says Curator Melanie Oliver. 

Sutton House, the former residence of artist Bill Sutton, was opened in 2021 and offers an artist-in-residence programme managed by Christchurch Art Gallery in conjunction with the University of Canterbury.  

Ripple includes double-sided hanging paintings, a new video work and a pattern painted directly on the gallery walls.  

“The artist was born in Fiji and raised in suburban Melbourne. She explores her cultural identity through her work, which she describes as self-portraiture,” says Ms Oliver. 

Tawale is currently Associate Lecturer of Screen Arts at the University of Sydney. She has exhibited extensively throughout Australia, and held residencies in Canada and London.