Wairau Māori Art Gallery Set To Open With Puhi Ariki Exhibition

The Wairau Māori Art Gallery is set to open following a formal karakia ceremony conducted by Te Parawhau at 5:30pm on Saturday 19 February 2022, with its first public viewing day on Sunday 20 February. Situated within the Hundertwasser Art Centre and part of the Hātea Art Precinct in Whangārei, the Wairau Māori Art Gallery has been many years in the planning.

The Gallery has been created to profile the best of Māori art and provide New Zealand with its first public Māori art gallery solely dedicated to profiling Māori artists and the work of Māori curators.

“We are delighted to be at the stage that we can now announce the opening of the Wairau Māori Art Gallery and its inaugural exhibition in the New Year on Saturday 19 February 2022” says Elizabeth Ellis, Chair of the Wairau Māori Art Gallery Charitable Trust. She adds, “Covid restrictions have required us to re-assess our timing. This new date will give us the opportunity to commemorate the birth, death and rebirth of Friedensreich Hundertwasser on 19 February 2022 while also celebrating the opening of the Wairau Māori Art Gallery and its inaugural exhibition Puhi Ariki curated by Nigel Borell.”

This initiative started in 2012 and the Wairau Māori Art Gallery Charitable Trust has partnered with the Hundertwasser Non-Profit Charitable Trust in Vienna and the Hātea Art Precinct Trust to realise this ambitious collaborative project.

Māori art curator Nigel Borell, who recently curated the landmark exhibition Toi Tū Toi Ora at Auckland Art Gallery, curates the first exhibition and presents a concept that plays on the importance of contemporary Māori art to Northland with the title Puhi Ariki. He says, “The exhibition will profile the work of nine Māori Top. John Miller, The Launch of Ngatokimatawhaorua 1974 Archival print, Collection of the artist. Below. Israel Tangaroa Birch Tinorangatiratanga, 2021 Lacquer on etched stainless steel. Collection of the artist. artists who all have a connection to Northland. It will feature a mix of iconic firstgeneration contemporary Māori artists alongside some of our established, more recent Māori art stars.”

Borell adds, “The title Puhi Ariki pays tribute to the importance of the plumes that adorn sailing waka where the puhi-maroke (the dry plume) sits above the puhimākū (the wet plume) at the tauihu (bow) of the waka. At the rear, atop the taurapa (stern post) can be found the plume named puhi-ariki. It is said that when the waka moves through the water, with ease and in unison, the puhi-ariki plumage shall glide along the water also. Puhi Ariki is offered as a metaphor about balance, order and prosperity, for both Northland and for Māori art.”

The inaugural exhibition Puhi Ariki will be accompanied by an exhibition catalogue offering new writings by leading Māori curators Megan TamatiQuennell, Karl Chitham and Nigel Borell, with a foreword written by Wairau Māori Art Gallery Chair Elizabeth Ellis.

The opening of the Hundertwasser Art Centre and Wairau Māori Art Gallery will also feature a newly commissioned sculptural pou by Māori artist Chris Bailey. It will stand at the entrance to the Art Centre welcoming visitors as they enter the building. Wairau Māori Art Gallery Trustee Dr Benjamin Pittman is the Chair of Te Pouwhenua o Tiakiriri Kūkupa Trust, Te Parawhau ki Tai, who are the iwi and kaitiaki of the mana whenua of the Whangārei region. He says, “Te Parawhau ki Tai have provided cultural support and karakia for all stages of the project's development from Te Kākano (The Seed) and throughout. It will continue to provide cultural support for the project until its full completion and thereafter. Te Parawhau ki Tai will accordingly conduct all required ceremonies at the Hundertwasser building and will also offer a mauri stone for Wi Taepa’s commissioned water bowl to be located in the Wairau Māori Art Gallery when it opens in February.”

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