Named Nō Konei | From Here, the season starts on 9 November 2024 and runs until 11 May 2025.
The opening programme features more than 200 artworks, spanning four centuries of European and New Zealand art history.
Displayed across the breadth of the gallery’s newly expanded exhibition spaces, works will range from traditional gilt-framed paintings to contemporary practice in a variety of media.
Senior Curator and Programmes Manager Greg Donson says the opening season represents the unique story of Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery, with Nō Konei | From Here comprising pieces that reflect the breadth of the gallery’s collection, as well as newly commissioned works by artists with a strong connection to the region.
“Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery’s curatorial team have chosen works that are imbued with the magic of the makers who walk among us – the artistic sightseers of our lives who traverse the terrain of the real and imagined, who show us and make us feel things we can’t quite put our finger on, our histories and memories,” he says.
“Galleries and their collections are much like families; they have their own DNA, ghosts, mauri. They evolve organically and we can only wonder sometimes – how did this artwork arrive here in this place?”
Many of the contemporary pieces in Nō Konei | From Here, are works created by artists who are alumni of the gallery’s Tylee Cottage artist-in-residence programme, established in 1986. These works were made in response to Whanganui, and will be shown with newly commissioned works by over twenty current practitioners.
The artists chosen for the exhibition represent diverse points of view and voices, the commonality being their link to the region and what the kaupapa ‘nō konei’ evokes for them.
Also featured are solo artist projects by Matthew McIntyre-Wilson (Taranaki, Ngā Māhanga and Titahi), Tia Ranginui (Ngāti Hine Oneone) and Alexis Neal (Ngāti Awa & Te Ātiawa). The origin of each of these individual projects is deeply embedded in Whanganui, and each of these new bodies of work have been years in the making.
A major new survey of celebrated Whanganui painter Edith Collier (1885-1964) will also be on show (9 November 2024 – 16 February 2025). Curated by Jill Trevelyan, this exhibition and its accompanying book, published 9 September 2024, places Collier as one of the leading lights of early Modernist painting in New Zealand.
“This opening programme celebrates the gallery’s rich history and bright future. Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery is back, strengthened, optimistic; reflecting on our past and looking to our future,” says Andrew Clifford, Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery Director.
“It marks an important moment in our story and highlights the significance of our region to the wider creative sector in Aotearoa New Zealand and abroad.”
Nō Konei | From Here
Opening Saturday 9 November 2024
Free Entry
