The River Is: Ashburton Art Gallery

At Ashburton Art Gallery and Museum, Iain Cheesman’s foyer wall artwork The River Is will be on display until April 2024. T he River Is is an extension of Iain Cheesman’s recent exhibition, Nurture Nature, which was exhibited at Ashburton Art Gallery and Museum from 19 October to 3 December 2023. Nurture Nature celebrated the […]

High priestess of poetry

Acclaimed Christchurch poet Gail Ingram clearly recalls the euphoria of seeing her first poem published in the Christchurch Press in 2014. “It was amazing. James Norcliffe published it, and I printed it off and sent copies to everybody.” From her early poems as a student at Canterbury University – “they were angsty poems, the usual […]

Artistic strides: Jacqui Colley

Jacqui Colley is an award-winning New Zealand artist. She was born in Zambia and grew up in Cape Town, South Africa where she studied graphic design at Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Then she relocated to New Zealand in 1996. Jacqui began sporadically painting while working full time as a graphic designer. After realising how […]

Flex your creativity: Art Metro

Christchurch has a local art school with a gallery showcasing the creative work of students. Loyal student, Monica Yeazel, whose works are pictured above, talks about her experience at the student gallery that has been helping people unleash their inner artist for years. Monica, a retired pharmacist, wanted to flex the creative side of her […]

Scratch builder Ghostcat

Mike Beer, a carpenter from Birmingham, discovered in the rubble of the Christchurch earthquakes, his place among the vibrant collective of urban artists. With a lack of scratch-builders in Canterbury, Mike found a niche he knew he could hack, and Ghostcat was born. Shadow Town, Ghostcat’s first exhibition, was a hit. The “worst toilet in […]

Sublime sculptures

By Daniella Judge Chiselling stone and bronze, Debbie Templeton-Page’s sculptural journey has progressed for more than two decades. “I was always arty as a young person, but it was when I was searching for the meaning of life that I became a sculptor.” Her friend introduced her to a sculpting lesson, and the fascination was […]

Spring Time is Heart-break: Contemporary Art in Aotearoa

A line from Ursula Bethell’s poem, ‘October, 1935’, inspires this exhibition where Aotearoa artists, many with strong connections to Ōtautahi, will be showing fresh contemporary work that is reflective of current issues and all have an intimate story to tell. These works are exclusive to this exhibition, making this a special chance to see a […]

Artistic creativity in Antarctica

More than 100 artists, writers, dancers, creators, educators and journalists have travelled to Scott Base with the Antarctica New Zealand’s Community Engagement Programme since 1957, returning home inspired and empowered to tell the frozen continent’s story. They have since become ambassadors for the continent’s environmental protection and preservation, and their work plays a crucial part […]

An Encore for Kristin Carlin, Neil Dawson, and Michel Tuffery

By Warren Feeney A recent group exhibition of 14 of The Central Art Gallery’s artists, appropriately titled Encore, noted that they are worthy of a round of applause. The response to the exhibition in this review has been to encompass something of its personality through three artists, highlighting the diversity of experiences they exemplified in […]

Areta Wilkinson and Toro Atua: Unlocking Stories of Place

By Warren Feeney In partnership with the Selwyn District Council and the Rolleston Residents’ Association, SCAPE Public Art has been engaged to bring to fruition a new permanent and major public artwork by Arts Foundation Laureate, Dr Areta Wilkinson’s (Ngāi Tahu) Toro Atua, for the Rolleston Town Centre. Wilkinson described Toro Atua as a contemporary […]