Swallowing Geography
Matt Pine, Shona Rapira Davies, Kate Newby, Ana Iti
Swallowing Geography is an exhibition that explores our relationship with land and place. It is about how we absorb the landscape and our built environment and how we ingest or take in the histories of sites and places both explicit and oblique.
Exhibition
Matt Pine, 'F' Series no.2 - Impressions on Gate Pā (excavations), 1979 - 2021 (realised by the Parekōwhai studio), installation image, Gallery 1, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. Image: Bryan James.
Len Lye: Rainbow Dance
Join the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in celebrating 120 years of Len Lye.
Rainbow Dance surveys Len Lye’s multimedia practice over his fifty-year career with essential, must-see film and sculptural works together with lesser known and recently conserved works from the Len Lye Foundation collection and archive completing the picture of one of Aotearoa’s most important artists.
Exhibition
Len Lye, Rainbow Dance, 1936. Courtesy of the Len Lye Foundation and The British Postal Museum & Archive. From material preserved and made available by Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision.
Brett Graham: Tai Moana Tai Tangata Virtual Tour
Enter the Tai Moana Tai Tangata virtual tour experience by clicking here.
Brett Graham's monumental exhibition Tai Moana Tai Tangata inhabited the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery from December 2020 to May 2021. The solo exhibition by Graham challenged narratives surrounding the New Zealand Wars, centred on the experiences and histories of Taranaki and Tainui Māori.
This first edition of the virtual tour is created for education audiences.
Virtual Tour
Brett Graham, Maungārongo ki te Whenua Maungārongo ki te Tangata, Gallery 4, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. Image Neil Pardington.
Coming Soon! Len Lye: Convolutions
One of Len Lye’s most novel projects is realised.
Alternatively known as 'Wall Serpent' or 'Wall Motion Sculpture', 'Convolutions' is among Len Lye’s most intriguing large-scale kinetic sculptures, closer in spirit to the organic forms of his experimental film 'Tusalava' (1929) and his biomorphic paintings of the 1930s than his typical kinetic sculpture of the 1960s.
Exhibition
Len Lye, Drawing for Convolutions, 1964, Len Lye Foundation.
What’s On
Gorillaz: Song Machine Live at Kong
Gorillaz: Song Machine Live at Kong
Gorillaz: Song Machine Live at Kong
Wed 8 Dec 21 — Len Lye Cinema
Experience the biggest virtual band on the planet in cinemas worldwide, as Gorillaz bring their highly acclaimed Song Machine Live to the big screen.
Event Info
Hilma af Klint The Ten Largest 1907; in Hilma af Klint: A Pioneer of Abstraction Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2013. Photo: The Moderna Museet, Stockholm.
Govett-Brewster Seniors
Hilma af Klint The Ten Largest 1907; in Hilma af Klint: A Pioneer of Abstraction Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2013. Photo: The Moderna Museet, Stockholm.
Fri 10 Dec 21 — Session takes place virtually
For December we're giving you a tour of two important new exhibitions in two different cities.
Join us for free-flowing conversations and experiences of contemporary art inside the current exhibitions.
Event Info
Len Lye, Drawing for Wall Motion Sculpture, c 1965. Len Lye Foundation.
On Convolutions and Len Lye: Dr Kate Linzey
Len Lye, Drawing for Wall Motion Sculpture, c 1965. Len Lye Foundation.
Sat 11 Dec 21 — Len Lye Centre Cinema
Join Dr Kate Linzey as she talks to the gallery’s newest Len Lye sculpture, Convolutions and discusses implications Lye’s sculptural practice has for architecture.
Event Info
Damon Ritai (Ngāti Te Whiti).
Image courtesy of Damon.
Kōrero of the Land
Damon Ritai (Ngāti Te Whiti).
Image courtesy of Damon.
Thu 3 Feb 22 — Puke Ariki Museum
Ko Taranaki te maunga
Ko Huatoki te awa
Ko Paiare, ko Paitawa ngā toka tapu
Ko Tokomaru te waka
Ko Te Atiawa te iwi
Ko Ngāti Te Whiti te hapū
Ko Parahuka te marae
Ko Puke Ariki te pā tūwatawata
Ko Te Rangiapitirua te rangatira
Tihei mauri ora
Tying in with Swallowing Geography, join educator Damon Ritai (Ngāti Te Whiti) to share narratives of Puke Ariki and the Ngāti Te Whiti stories that are linked to this land.
Event Info
News
Book of Len Lye’s poems released
The first collection of poetry by the internationally recognised pioneering filmmaker and kinetic artist Len Lye has been published by the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and Len Lye Foundation.
Gallery part of Grounded in Place Symposium
Over three days in October, the Grounded in Place online symposium presented a conversation between 16 Frist Nation artists, curators, and filmmakers, along with non-indigenous scholars and museum professionals.
International Film Festivals coming to Gallery
The Len Lye Centre Cinema is welcoming four international film festivals in the coming weeks, connecting the district’s residents to the world despite the current travel restrictions.
International attention grows during artist’s 120th anniversary
International interest in the pioneering work of New Zealand artist Len Lye continues to grow 120 years after his birth, with the late artist’s work being included in a number of significant international exhibitions.
"Apple Cart Upset. You Have to Laugh"
So said the headline of the editorial in the Taranaki Daily News on 2 October 1975, in response to Billy Apple’s Neon Accumulation, 1968, exhibited on a back staircase of the Gallery.
Gallery launches virtual tour of acclaimed exhibition Tai Moana Tai Tangata by Brett Graham
The Gallery is proud to launch a virtual tour of the monumental exhibition Tai Moana Tai Tangata by Brett Graham (Ngāti Koroki Kahukura, Tainui), produced in collaboration with Puke Ariki Museum and Library.
Foundation supports Gallery acquisition
The Govett-Brewster Foundation has supported the acquisition of an important new work for the Gallery’s permanent collection of contemporary art.
Gallery welcomes new works by Billy Apple to collection
Two new works by Tāmaki Makaurau-based artist Billy Apple have been gifted to the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery’s permanent collection by the artist.
Govett-Brewster Foundation acknowledges 50 year commitments
The Govett-Brewster Foundation celebrated four key figures in the Gallery’s early development at a gala event in late July, when Governor General Dame Patsy Reddy and Foundation Chair John Leuthart presented the inaugural Govett-Brewster Foundation Awards.
Govett-Brewster announces new Assistant Curator
New Plymouth’s Govett-Brewster Art Gallery has announced that Simon Gennard will join the Gallery as its Assistant Curator Contemporary Art and Collections from late August 2021.
Creative New Zealand partners with the Gallery to support Pacific arts in Taranaki
Creative New Zealand and Govett-Brewster Art Gallery/Len Lye Centre are delighted to announce a new collaboration to support Pasifika arts development and engagement in the Taranaki region.
Launching in Auckland: our new publication Uneven Bodies (reader)
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery’s new publication, Uneven Bodies (reader), will be launched at Samoa House Library in Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland on Saturday 7 August from 2 - 4pm. The publication launch will include a panel discussion with guest speakers Olyvia Hong, Lana Lopesi, Megan Tamati-Quennell and facilitated by Hanahiva Rose. All are welcome to attend the free launch event.
Shop the
Govett-Brewster
D Harding: There is no before
There is no before documents and is part of D Harding’s project There is no before at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in 2021.
Harding is a descendant of the Bidjara, Ghungalu and Garingbal peoples. The range of new work made for their first exhibition in Aotearoa continue their practice of drawing upon and maintaining the spiritual and philosophical sensibilities of their cultural inheritance within the framework of contemporary art internationally.
$40.00
More info
D Harding: There is no before