Govett-Brewster Art Gallery

The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth shows the work of local, national and international contemporary artists. Since it opened in 1970, the gallery has presented a lively programme of exhibitions, tours, talks, workshops, films, performances, and music and education programmes. It also has a permanent collection of paintings, video, installations and photographs. One of the gallery’s first exhibitions was Portrait of Mexico (1972), which was a large exhibition of 35 centuries of Mexican art that toured around New Zealand.

The gallery’s focus on art from the Pacific rim has led it to offer art residencies to many Latin American artists including Gabriel Kuri (Mexico, 2006), Javier Téllez (Venezuela, 2009) and Nicolás Paris (Colombia, 2019). The gallery has hosted several exhibitions with Latin American connections. These include Tom Kreisler (2007), Points of Contact (2010-2011) and Te Au: Liquid Constituencies (2022-2023). The gallery has hosted special events, such as Amazon – Raised Up Sky (2020) and 72HORAS (2018), and supported workshops for the Cultural Sector Partnerships programme. Every year, the gallery also hosts the Latin America and Spain Film Festival.

The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery was set up with a gift from New Plymouth resident Monica Brewster (nee Govett) and is now funded by New Plymouth District Council. In 2015, the Len Lye Centre was opened as an extension to the gallery, to display the work of New Zealand sculptor and filmmaker Len Lye. The gallery’s current director is Dr Zara Stanhope, who curated TRANS VERSA: Conversing Across the South (2006) – an exhibition in Santiago of visual artwork by Chilean, Australian and New Zealand artists – and Space to Dream: Recent Art from South America (2016) at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.

Location

New Plymouth, New Zealand

Date

Opened in 1970

Published 02 November 2023