In need of a culture fix? Look no further than the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki.
With a whole host of free exhibitions currently on show, read on to learn more about what’s on our radar this season.
01. Louise Bourgeois: In Private View
Louise Bourgeois: In Private View celebrates the life and work of prolific French American artist, Louise Bourgeois. This free exhibit — on show until May 2026 — brings together a selection of works sourced from a private collection, available to the public for the very first time. The exhibition spans over six decades of Bourgeois’ highly influential career, from early paint studies to a fabric piece from the final year of her life. Widely known for her sculptures and installations, Bourgeois’ work explored the surreal and the subconscious, often drawing from her own personal experience.
02. Brett Graham, Wastelands
Fresh off its presentation at the 60th Venice Biennale, gallery goers will be given the unique opportunity to get up close and personal with Brett Graham’s monumental sculpture, Wastelands. This commanding and historically significant piece — crafted from a combination of wood, steel, found wagon wheels, macrocarpa and acrylic lacquer wax — provides an emotive commentary on the Waikato-Tainui land conflict and the devastating effects on the tribal people and their land. Accompanied by a video installation, Graham’s work marks a significant acquisition for the gallery and is not to be missed.
03. Artland: An Installation by Do Ho Suh and children
Fit for the whole family, the whimsically collaborative, hands-on clay installation entitled Artland — designed by South Korean artist Do Ho Suh and his young daughters — is on show until July 2026. The installation features imaginative creatures and fantastical landscapes and invites visitors of all ages to sculpt their own creations.
04. Do Ho Suh, North Wall
Marvel at the eight-metre large fabric sculpture that appears suspended in space, hanging from the ceiling in the heart of the Gallery’s building. Identified as one of Suh’s most significant early pieces, North Wall is a vibrant green fabric sculpture, inspired by the artist’s father’s studio in Seoul and modelled after a traditional Korean scholar house. The piece — rendered using fabric techniques that have become synonymous with Suh’s practice — explores themes of longing, memory and cultural displacement.
05. The Robertson Gift: Paths through Modernity
For the modernists among us, prepare to marvel at a 15-piece donation of iconic works, courtesy of the estate of New York-based philanthropists, Julian and Josie Robertson.
Works include Modernist masterpieces by the likes of Braque, Cezanne, Dalí, Derain, Gauguin, Matisse and Picasso and will be free to view until February 2026.
What’s more, on Thursday October 16, the Auckland Art Gallery will once again open its doors after dark, for the largest and final Open Late Night of the year — a free admission event — will see the gallery’s North Atrium transform into a hive of activity, with live music, an assortment of food trucks and the Bourgeois Bar keeping gallery goers satiated from six until 9pm.
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