OPEN DAILY: 10:00am – 4:30pm
Except Christmas Day and Good Friday
FREE ENTRY
Shed 11, 60 Lady Elizabeth Lane
Wellington Waterfront 6011
OPEN DAILY: 10:00am – 4:30pm
Except Christmas Day and Good Friday
FREE ENTRY
Shed 11, 60 Lady Elizabeth Lane
Wellington Waterfront 6011
The Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award is a competition that encourages young Maaori artists to create portraits of their tupuna (ancestors) in any medium. The Award is hosted and administered by Te Pūkenga Whakaata the New Zealand Portrait Gallery in honour of the late Maaori King, Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII.
This exhibition will focus on three aspects of Lynch’s artistic career: portraits painted for competitions (for instance she entered the famous Australian Archibald Portrait Prize four times), controversial portraits (her portrait of Mayor Percy Dowse, Lower Hutt was taken down at the Dowse but in 1984 the director was told to reinstate it against his dislike for it) and portraits of her students, of which there are many.
Image: Julia Lynch, Self-portrait, c.1924, private collection.
Delving into the complicated multiplicities of self-perception and identity, this exhibition presents a selection of innovative painted self-portraits by modern and contemporary artists from Aotearoa New Zealand.
Image: Sacha Lees, Sometimes an Outline Coloured In, 2020. Collection New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata, winner of the Adam Portraiture Award 2020.
Join us to celebrate the life and legacy of Julia B. Lynch—Sister Lawrence—one of Aotearoa’s most beloved portrait artists. This special gathering, facilitated by St Mary’s Old Girls’ Association President Judy Houlahan, invites friends, family, former students and admirers to share stories and reflections.
Image: Julia B Lynch, Carol Ann Henderson (later Armstrong), (1962), Private Collection
Have a go at portraiture in a relaxed setting with our koha monthly life drawing sessions.
Join 2025 Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award Highly Commended ringatoi Shannon Te Rangihaeata Clamp as he teaches how to identify and create different iwi tiki face styles using specific mātauranga-a-iwi and hapū, as well as practice and learn the meaning of carving patterns. By the end of the session, you will have created your own small tiki face on wood using the same technique Shannon uses in his mahi toi.
This is a paid workshop; tickets can be purchased from our website or in person at the Gallery Store. Spots are limited, so secure your ticket today! $10 unwaged | $20 waged.
Image: Shannon Te Rangihaeata Clamp (Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Koata), Te Rangihaeata and Te Rangitopeora, 2024
The Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award is a biennial competition that provides emerging Māori artists with the opportunity to showcase their talents on the national stage, while also playing an important role in recording and celebrating tūpuna and their stories.
Image: Marie Kyle, Between Worlds, acrylic on linen (finalist)
A picture is a whole world unto itself.
Step beyond the frame and see what you find. Background Matters asks what can be revealed when we view the sitter of a portrait in the expanded field of their surroundings. In bringing the background to the fore, this exhibition subverts the hierarchy of subject and setting to consider the portraiture of Aotearoa New Zealand from a fresh vantage point.
Image: Nicolette Page, Carmen, Oil on board, 2012. Collection New Zealand Portrait Gallery, Gift of the artist
A fresh take on stories of Ngā Pākanga o Aotearoa, the New Zealand Wars, as portrayed in film. This exhibition shows the making and remaking of our history as interpreted through various films, television series, and digital storytelling formats.
Image: Anzac Wallace stars in the 1983 film Utu.
Robyn Kahukiwa’s artworks have made a difference to Māori. They have provided not only beauty and strength but inroads into our mātauranga, and the multi-layered, inter-generational and ever-evolving stories that are part of our cultural landscape. Her work has become an alternate visual rendering of Aotearoa’s history, through the lens of a Māori woman.
Image: Robyn Kahukiwa, Portrait of a Woman, 1986, Private collection, Wellington