Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū

08/09/2026

Aotearoa New Zealand lost one of its most significant printmakers in late August. Barry Cleavin (1939–2026) had a long and distinguished career as an inventive, visionary, at times controversial printmaker and educationalist. While studying painting at the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts in the mid-1960s, he started printing etchings on the school’s disused and rickety intaglio press. Hooked immediately, he took up printmaking.

Barry was a founding member of the Print Council of New Zealand in 1967 and went on to teach generations of printmaking students at Christchurch Technical Institute and the School of Fine Arts, where, having been appointed Senior Lecturer in Printmaking, he established an important printmaking studio in 1978. Through his teaching and practice, Barry inspired a generation of young printmakers who went on to develop successful careers, including Marian Maguire, Jason Greig, Kate Unger, Sue Cooke, Marty Vreede, Derek Lardelli and Peter Ransom.

Barry retained his affinity with etching throughout his career. He loved the process, describing it as “a bit medieval” as he prepared a zinc plate for etching by blacking it with candle smoke, noting that “it has always been done like this”. He was held in high regard by artists, art teachers, academics and curators in Aotearoa and internationally, and his prints are represented in public art galleries throughout the country as well as in the National Gallery of Australia. He held many exhibitions over his long career, including major surveys of his work at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and the Robert McDougall Art Gallery.

Barry’s wicked sense of humour often carried over into his prints, and he was never one to shy away from political issues or injustices. His work often made biting commentary protesting issues such as the futility and brutality of warfare, Aotearoa aligning itself with international military powers, nuclear testing in the Pacific and the impact of humans on native wildlife.

The team at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū offers our sincere condolences to Barry’s family and friends. He was a leading light in this city’s art world for many decades and will be sadly missed.

Vale, Barry.

___________________________________________

Barry Cleavin, Just One of a Number of Allegations Flying Around a Room, 1988. Etching, aquatint. Collection Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 1989.

26/08/2026

Join us this Friday (28/08) at 12pm for a free Art Bite talk with Guided Engagement Coordinator Rebecca Ogle as she discusses Eileen Mayo's Gregg’s Jelly cards currently on display in 'Bird Land: Te Kāhui Manu'.

This delightful collection of mini paintings features Aotearoa New Zealand birds by artist Eileen Mayo, which was first reproduced in 1976 as collectable picture cards in packets of Gregg’s Jelly Crystals. From the curious mātuhituhi bush wren to the elegant kōtuku white heron depicted in stunning detail, it’s not hard to see why these charming little works captured the hearts of young and old alike.

Art Bites are 30-minute lunchtime presentations on a single work on display, presented by our staff, guides and guest speakers. There's a new Art Bite to enjoy every Friday at 12pm (except during public and school holidays).

Bird Land: Te Kāhui Manu
15 August 2026 - 8 February 2027
Free Entry

___________________________

Eileen Mayo, Kōtuku/White Heron, 1976. Gouache and
coloured pencil. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te
Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased, 2005.

26/08/2026

19/08/2026

Join us this Saturday (22/08) at 1pm for a special free screening of the documentary film, 'Village by the Sea: Edith Collier in Ireland' directed by Michael Heath, followed by a Q&A Session.

In the film 'Village by the Sea', director Michael Heath and cinematographer Stephen Latty journeyed to the Southern Coast of Ireland, where nearly 100 years ago Aotearoa New Zealand artist Edith Collier and fellow artists spent two summers living in the small, coastal village of Bunmahon, capturing, with astonishing clarity, the beauty of the Irish land and seascapes, its tumble-down cottages, and the poor peasant community, both young and old.

The 'Edith Collier: Early New Zealand Modernist' exhibition currently on show at the Gallery, is a rare opportunity to view the work of one of Aotearoa’s most adventurous and experimental modernist artists.

Edith Collier (1885–1964) was one of the outstanding artists of her era, but she was not so well known for her work in her day. This survey exhibition takes a fresh look at her achievements, both at home and abroad, now at a time of growing international interest in the work of women modernists.

Born in Whanganui, Collier travelled to England in 1913 and spent nine years studying with artists including Margaret Macpherson (later Preston) and Frances Hodgkins. Under their guidance she developed a bold, experimental style based on the ideas of post-impressionism, featuring vigorous drawing, fluent brushwork and a distinctive sense of colour.

The exhibition includes key paintings from the Edith Collier Trust held at Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery that have rarely been seen in Ōtautahi Christchurch. Developed and toured by Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery, with the generous support from the Edith Collier Trust.

Free Entry
Edith Collier: Early New Zealand Modernist
9 May - 30 August

______________________________________

Edith Collier, Girl in the Sunshine, 1915. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Edith Collier Trust, in the permanent care of Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery

19/08/2026

This Saturday, our very own Kim, founder and director of Ōtautahi Creative Spaces) will be speaking at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū on Art Matters: The power of art to transform Hauora.

Fresh from a research hui in Edinburgh, Kim will be sharing stories and insights draw from our creative community alongside international developments in the sector.

22nd August, 11am The Philip Carter Family Auditorium. Free

19/08/2026

Join Hatesa Seumanutafa, Curator Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Human Histories from the Canterbury Museum for a free Art Bite talk this Friday (21/08) at 12pm. She will discuss selected tāoga on display in the exhibition, 'Made in the Pacific: A Collection of Tāoga'.

Our current show 'Made in the Pacific: A Collection of Tāoga' celebrates Pacific tāoga, bringing together examples made by moana ancestors with new work by their distant mokopuna.

"The museum treasures in this exhibition are by makers who gained their knowledge from elders and specialists in their communities. Their work contains precious cultural histories within both the materials and visual language."

"These historical tāoga were used in the creative practice of making barkcloth, known variously in the Pacific realm as tapa, hiapo, siapo, ate, ngatu and masi. As the exhibition’s curator, and a hiapo maker myself, I gravitated towards these objects and the contemporary artists who work with these materials and share their own stories in textile."

"The artists in this exhibition are all expert visual orators, using pattern, symbology and text to eloquently depict important narratives. Their individual practices have developed as the result of years of making, research and experimentation with new technologies and materials." ⁠— Cora-Allan, 'Awhitu Wānanga', Bulletin Issue 223

Made in the Pacific: A Collection of Tāoga
On now until 11 October
Free Entry

___________________________________

Installation view of Made in the Pacific: A Collection of Tāoga at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, 2026, including objects on loan from Canterbury Museum and works by Serene
Hodgman (right).

Installation view of Made in the Pacific: A Collection of Tāoga at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, 2026, including objects on loan from Canterbury Museum.

Installation view of Made in the Pacific: A Collection of Tāoga at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, 2026, including Wish you were here by Doron Semu (foreground), works by Louisa Afoa (left) and objects on loan from Canterbury Museum (background).

19/08/2026

The Group was a loosely formed group of artists who exhibited together in Ōtautahi Christchurch from 1927 to 1977. Its members included some of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most distinguished artists, and their annual exhibition was a high point of the city's art calendar.

Over The Group’s fifty years the artists came and went, and young radicals gradually became the establishment. To its members’ credit, they knew when their time was up, but they left a rich archive of documents and photographs that illuminate how it operated – and how it survived so long.

Artists associated with The Group included: Margaret Anderson (later Frankel), Viola Macmillan Brown, Cora Wilding, William (Billy) Baverstock, Evelyn Polson (later Page), Edith Wall, Ngaio Marsh, William H. Montgomery, Colin McCahon, Lois McIver, Doris Lusk, Toss Woollaston, Rita Angus, Olivia Spencer Bower, Leo Bensemann, Rata Lovell-Smith, Philip Trusttum, Quentin Macfarlane, Rosemary Johnson and Douglas MacDiarmid.

This small exhibition explores their story.

Inside The Group
21 August – 13 December 2026
Anthony Harper Archive Lounge
Free Entry

________________________________________

1960 Group show poster. Robert and Barbara Stewart Library and Archives, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū.

17/08/2026

Be swept into a world of birds at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū's new exhibition, Bird Land: Te Kāhui Manu 🐦🪶

Featuring more than 200 historical and contemporary artworks, the exhibition celebrates Aotearoa New Zealand’s remarkable birdlife from flightless forest dwellers to extinct giants.

Discover stories of art, conservation, history and our changing relationship with birds through works by some of our most celebrated artists.

All the details on Newsline 👇 www.newsline.ccc.govt.nz/news/story/new-art-gallery-exhibition-takes-flight

📸Eileen Mayo Kōtuku / White Heron 1976. Gouache and coloured pencil. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased, 2005

17/08/2026

"...a plurality of voices sweeping in from the margins..."

Check out the latest issue of takahē Magazine for a review from Bannavan Gnanalingam of Between Dreams by Grace Gassin. Grace is joining us to deliver the Julie King Memorial Lecure, with thanks to the Friends of the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū on Sunday 6 September. A free event, but bookings recommended!