Exciting line up of exhibitions on show

From City Scene, published on 17 February, 2008

Mask by Arnold Manaaki Wilson.

Coming up: The work of innovative, contemporary Maori artists - including Arnold Manaaki Wilson (whose work, Mask is pictured above) - will be celebrated in the forthcoming Turuki, Turuki! Paneke, Paneke! exhibition, at the New Gallery from 31 May.

Photo finish: Eminent New Zealand photographer Laurence Aberhart's work, including Kamala and Magdalena, Mornington, Dunedin, will be on display from 16 February to 11 May at the New Gallery

During the development of the main gallery, the Auckland Art Gallery's New Gallery on the corner of Wellesley and Lorne streets will continue to provide an exciting line-up of exhibitions and public programmes. The Likeness and Character exhibition of portraits from the collection will be on display until 20 April. The exhibition's centrepiece - Tony Fomison's The Ponsonby Madonna - is on public display for the first time since it was commissioned by Auckland's St Paul's College in 1982. Other exhibitions this year include Contemporary International and New Zealand Art from 1 May to 28 September and the Walters Prize 2008 from 13 September to 23 November. The Walters Prize 2008 is an exhibition of work by selected finalists for this prize that acknowledges the most outstanding contribution to contemporary visual art in New Zealand during the last two years. Public programmes will continue to be offered from the New Gallery - including the Kids' Club every Sunday at 11am and 2pm.

Visit www.aucklandartgallery.govt.nz or phone 379 1349 to find out more about what's on offer at the New Gallery.

A City Gallery Wellington touring exhibition of the eminent New Zealand photographer Laurence Aberhart's work, including Kamala and Magdalena, Mornington, Dunedin, will be on display from 16 February to 11 May at the New Gallery. "Since the 1970s, Aberhart has been the essential visual poet of New Zealanders' past, and this exhibition brings together more than 200 photographs from the last four decades," says exhibition curator Gregory O'Brien. "Aberhart's images are bathed in the light of photographic history, as well as that of the world around. In his exquisite prints, photography reclaims magic often lost in the digital age," he says.