Hello from City Gallery Wellington, 

We have welcomed the revered master of Samoan tatau into the building this morning with a special ceremony and blessing for those who are receiving the tatau from Paul Junior Sulu’ape over the next fortnight. The set up is quite something with mats spread across the vicinity and various people working as 'stretchers' of the skin. The opportunity to see this live tatau up close runs in the Deane Gallery until Friday 14 September.
 
As always please let me know if you would like any imagery or need any further information.
 
Have a great week!
Anna
 
EVENTS
 
Tufuga Tatatau Demonstration
(Revered master demonstration)
Paul Junior  Sulu’ape
Monday 27 August – Friday 7 September
Paul Junior  Sulu’ape will be on site to complete a pe’a and malu as part of Sui faiga ae tumau fa’avae in the Deane Gallery.
 
Gallery Babes
Wednesday 29 August 10.30am
Designed for caregivers and led by City Gallery educators, these mid-morning tours offer special insight into our current exhibitions. The tours are pitched at parents and provide a child-friendly environment for thinking about and engaging with art. Tours are available at alternative times for mothers and coffee groups by prior arrangement. Bookings essential via citygalleryevents@wmt.org.nz

Athfield Architects Panel Discussion
Thursday 20 September, 6-7.30pm.  Gold coin entry.
Established in 1968, Athfield Architects continues to present architectural forms which respond proactively to the pressing challenges of our time: the need for sustainable design, quality social housing, public space which reflects its community, and collaborative practice.  This panel discussion will be chaired by exhibition curator, Julia Gatley and will feature architects from Athfield Architects and elsewhere.
 
April Henderson Responds to Sui faiga ae tumau faávae
Thursday 27 September, 12.30pm, Free entry
Dr April K. Henderson, Lecturer and Programme Director of Pacific Studies, Va'aomanu Pasifika, at Victoria University of Wellington discusses the influence of hip hop on Samoan art and culture in relation to the exhibition Sui faiga ae tumau fa'avae.
Henderson’s PHD research studies the influence of urban music and culture on the Pacific, particularly the influence of hip hop on Samoan communities. This talk will explore aspects of her research in relation to the Samoan tatau (tattoo) exhibition Sui faiga ae tumau fa'avae in the Deane Gallery. This exhibition explores artists who practice  customary tatau and incorporate contemporary designs, resulting in a new art form that speaks to both one’s culture as well as the realities of urban life.


New exhibitions
Hirschfeld Gallery: Between the lines: Peter Gouge and Zoë Rapley
11 August – 7 October 2012
The works in this exhibition by Wellington artists Peter Gouge and Zoë Rapley are to some extent exercises in the art of making.
They are about measurement, materials, and time; they are about drawing one line and then another, and about that which emerges in the space between those lines.

Deane Gallery: Sui faiga ae tumau fa’avae
10 August - 7 October 2012
Sui faiga ae tumau fa’avae is a Pacific tatau (tattoo) exhibition featuring artists Tuigamala Andy Tauafiafi, Ismael Jaco ‘J’ Augustine Schmidt and Bryan ‘Juse1’ Visala. . This exhibition explores artists who practice  customary tatau and incorporate contemporary designs, resulting in a new art form that speaks to both one’s culture as well as the realities of urban life. Taupou Tatau and Killa Kutz will be performing tatau and hair styling demonstrations in the Gallery from Friday 10 August to Sunday 7 October 2012, excluding Sundays. 
>From Monday 27 August to Friday 14 September tufuga tatatau Paul Junior Sulu’ape will be performing ‘au ta demonstrations, the customary technique of tapping pigment into the skin using a comb chisel. Bookings can be made via email info@taupoutatau.com

THE WINTER SEASON continues - Free entry

Athfield Architects: People and Place
23 June – 7 October 2012
Curated by Julia Gatley, Athfield Architects: People and Place traces four decades of the firm’s dynamic history, presenting a vivid sense of the office and its vision.  Established in 1968, Athfield Architects continues to present architectural forms that respond proactively to the pressing challenges of our time: the need for sustainable design, quality housing, public spaces that reflect the community, and collaborative practice. This exhibition is long overdue for such a significant practitioner. Athfield’s voice continues to be at the centre of architectural dialogue around the country, most recently as part of Christchurch rebuild discussions. The exhibition sits alongside Gatley’s major publication Athfield Architects, to be launched by Auckland University Press in conjunction with the exhibition.

Supporting Partick Thistle: Paintings
Rob McLeod
23 June – 23 September 2012
Wellington painter Rob McLeod’s first  and last solo showing at City Gallery Wellington was in 1981, an exhibition of expressionist and minimalist abstraction. His paintings return to the gallery in 2012 utterly transformed. Rejecting their modernist origins and driven by an ever-pressing need to take new form and acquire new energies, McLeod’s paintings are now governed by a bawdy, cartoon-based figuration. These paintings heave with confounding imagery, amorphous figures and riotous crowds that have fled the frame and come off the wall to invade the physical and psychological spaces of the viewer. It’s all driven by McLeod’s belief that to remain relevant painting must push its own conventions and boundaries, that it can no longer sit quietly and reverentially on the wall.
 
Apocalyptic Intuition Rohan Wealleans
23 June – 23 September 2012
Apocalyptic Intuition, a new body of work by Auckland-based painter Rohan Wealleans, transforms the Gallery space into something other, magical and alien. Wealleans further pushes his investigations into the possibilities of paint as a life-giving physical substance and the act of painting as a transformative or shamanistic force that reaches far beyond rational explanation and purpose. This is a place of enchantment, spells, quests, and paint: layers upon layers of the acrylic house paint Wealleans uses to create these other realms and summon the characters that dwell there.
 
New Acquisitions Wellington City Council  
23 June – 7 October 2012
Investigations into natural and inorganic forms and energies link the artists represented in a new exhibition of recent acquisitions from the Wellington City Council collection. The art exhibited in this exhibition has been collected by the City Council over the past five years, and reflects the Council's commitment to acknowledging and supporting the vitality of Wellington arts and artists.
Represented artists include: Ngatai Taepa, Martin Thompson, Ben Buchanan, Peter Trevelyan, Sian Torrington, Brendan O'Brien, Diane Prince, Mary-Louise Browne, Arie Hellendoorn, Rob McLeod and Kate Small.
 

 
ANNA DEAN - Interim Communications City Gallery Wellington
 
As I am working 25 hours per week I am on this email all day Monday, Wednesday and Fridays.
Please call me outside these hours on 021 152 7232 if urgent, or contact Marketing Manager Angela Meyer-Blacksmith in my absence on a.meyerblacksmith@wmt.org.nz
 
City Gallery Wellington | Civic Square | 101 Wakefield Street | PO Box 2199 | Wellington | Aotearoa New Zealand 
DDI: +64 4 801 4258
M: 021 152 7232
www.citygallery.org.nz