The 2026 Aotearoa Art Fair is the biggest yet, with 65 galleries from 25 countries and more than 200 works on display. Auckland is fast becoming a serious stop on the international contemporary art circuit. Held at the Viaduct Events Centre from 30th April to 3rd May, this year’s show holds space for the Māori and Pacific practices that give it genuine cultural specificity alongside blue-chip international names. Solidifying this is Lisa Reihana’s ANZAC, an installation eight metres high and twenty metres long, composed of 180,000 shimmering discs, which surround the entrance to the fair. Reihana, who represented New Zealand at the 2017 Venice Biennale, has spent more than three decades using film, photography and installation to centre Māori and Pacific perspectives in history, and the work is a fitting threshold to what lies inside.

Below are the booths and works worth prioritising.

Gow Langsford

Denizen’s current issue cover star, Grace Wright, shows with Gow Langsford, one of the fair’s anchor presentations, and her large-scale acrylics on linen are worth seeking out up close. Commanding and weather-like, these are paintings in a state of perpetual motion. The booth also pairs international sculptural weight from Lee Bae (South Korea) and Tony Cragg (UK) with Claudia Kogachi’s canvases, which layer personal narrative with a confident contemporary visual idiom.

Sanderson

A considered group presentation across four artists. Natasha Wright’s large-scale oils and works on paper deal directly with the female form and gaze. Julia Holderness brings hand-painted ceramics and watercolours drawn from her studio archive, quietly revisionist work in the history of female painting in Aotearoa. Simon Kaan (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Mamoe, Waitaha) offers meditative paintings of waka set against dissolved horizons of sea and sky, while Freeman White rounds out the booth with bold, animated seascapes.

Föenander Galleries

One of the more intriguing group presentations at this year’s fair. The Föenander booth features new work by Israel Tangaroa Birch, Lottie Consalvo, Mbali Dhlamini, Anton Forde, Nick Herd, Roger Mortimer, Neal Palmer, Monica Rani Rudhar, Vipoo Srivilasa and Jessica Swney. A broad cross-section of contemporary practice that is worth exploring.

Michael Lett

A solo presentation of new large-scale paintings by Judy Millar, one of the most consistently compelling abstract painters working in Aotearoa. Millar’s practice critically re-examines the gestural tradition she operates within, producing work that is both physically commanding and conceptually precise. These are paintings that require real space to be read properly; the fair setting is ideal.

{Suite} Gallery

Ponsonby’s {Suite} brings something genuinely unusual: 50 small paintings by Richard Lewer, the Hamilton-born, Melbourne-based artist who has built an extraordinary reputation as a contemporary social realist on both sides of the Tasman. The full compendium is a kind of snapshot social commentary: personal, precise and frequently surprising. Following major institutional shows at the Geelong Gallery and National Gallery of Australia, this is a significant moment to encounter Lewer’s work in New Zealand.

Fox Jensen McCrory

A strong showing across painting and sculpture with international reach. Aida Tomescu’s large-scale oils on Belgian linen are richly material and chromatic, shown alongside new work from Erin Lawlor, Lucienne O’Mara, Bill & Pip Culbert, Matthew Allen and Tomislav Nikolic. Germany-based Jan Albers also features through the Fox Jensen McCrory arm. A booth for those who respond to painting with formal rigour and strong material intelligence.

Starkwhite

STARKWHITE’s presentation for the 2026 Aotearoa Art Fair brings together key artists from home and abroad in a sumptuous exploration of the sculptural object. A large central platform supports a metropolis of sculptural work by artists including Mikala Dwyer, Anselm Reyle, Seung Yul Oh, and Mark Whalen.

To coincide with the fair, Starkwhite releases Autumn Spice, a new limited-edition print by Jonny Niesche, executed in copper, the work will be released at 12 pm on Thursday, 30th April. Please register your interest at [email protected]. The reflective, warm-toned surface speaks directly to Niesche’s longstanding preoccupations with beauty, surface and desire. A collectable edition that does justice to the artist’s practice.

Black Door Gallery

Black Door brings together four artists whose practices share a preoccupation with landscape, perception, and layered surfaces. Christine Cathie and Ryan Carter manipulate and sculpt glass to reveal and conceal imagery; Kaye McGarva bends perception through illusionistic painting; Mark Wooller works with maps and cartography to trace layered histories of place. Together, a coherent and thoughtful curation.

The Colin McCahon Trust

The Trust presents its first authorised limited edition: Clouds 3 (1975/2024), a beautiful archival screen print in an edition of 100. Proceeds fund the Colin McCahon Legacy Project, the digital catalogue raisonné of his 1,850+ works. A rare opportunity to acquire something genuinely connected to the McCahon estate, at an accessible price point.

The Sculpture Trail

Running alongside the fair from 10 April to 4 May, the Aotearoa Art Fair Sculpture Trail (presented by Viaduct Harbour in association with Auckland Live) expands significantly in 2026 with 24 large-scale works by 18 artists installed across the waterfront precinct. Free and open to the public, it is the most accessible entry point to the fair’s broader programme.

Highlights include Lisa Reihana’s ANZAC Waharoa at the entrance to the Viaduct Events Centre; works by Peata Larkin, Reuben Paterson and Sione Faletau; flag works by A’aifou Potemanidrawing on Pacific siapo; a major floating mirror-polished sculpture by Gregor Kregaranchoring the harbour edge; and international names including Bernar Venet and Turner Prize-winner Martin Creed. A genuine outdoor exhibition in its own right that can be appreciated by young and old.

The Aotearoa Art Fair is on from Thursday, 30th April until Sunday, 3rd May.
Book your tickets here.

artfair.co.nz