Dunedin Public Art Gallery

Dunedin Public Art Gallery was New Zealand’s first art gallery; it is now one of the country’s four main metropolitan galleries. It is known for its rich and historic art collection and close ties with major New Zealand artists. The gallery exhibits its own extensive collection, and artworks sourced from other national and international collections. It also runs an interesting programme of lectures, talks, film and video screenings, performances and workshops.

Dunedin Public Art Gallery has hosted several exhibitions related to Latin America. In 2007, it showed Tom Kreisler – an exhibition of work by the New Zealand artist from his 35-year career. Although he lived most of his life in New Zealand, Tom was born in Argentina and his work was heavily influenced by his interest in Mexican folk art.

Between 2009 and 2010, the gallery presented two Latin American exhibitions. Foreign Exchange consisted of two videos by Argentinian born artist Miguel Angel Rios. This was the first showing of Miguel’s work to a New Zealand audience. David Clegg was an exhibition of nine series of photographic and audio recordings made in Santiago, Chile, and in Dunedin.

In 2019, the gallery hosted OPAVIVARÁ! - a collective of contemporary Brazilian artists – as part of its International Visiting Artist Programme. Around 88,000 New Zealanders and international visitors came to see OPAVIVARÁ! present two of its most recent works called Rede Social and Paje Curumim.

The gallery’s most recent Latin American exhibition was The Wandering Womb. Shown between May and July 2023, The Wandering Womb is an audio-visual piece by Dutch artist Pleun Gremmen and Brazilian artist Menahem Wrona that explores the poetics of creation.

Dunedin Public Art Gallery is funded and managed by Dunedin City Council.

Location

Dunedin, New Zealand

Date

Opened in 1884

Published 02 November 2023