Christchurch’s CoCA Programme Filled with Contemporary Art

Christchurch’s CoCA gallery releases programme filled with New Zealand’s top contemporary artists

The Centre of Contemporary Art Toi Moroki (CoCA) today announced it will host some of New Zealand’s most respected and stimulating artists at its Christchurch gallery over the next 18 months.

Following on from its current exhibition, Paemanu: Nohoaka Toi – Ngāi Tahu Artists in Residence, which showcases the vibrancy of contemporary Ngāi Tahu visual arts, CoCA is maintaining its focus on Aotearoa’s thriving contemporary art scene.

Two shows offer firsts for Canterbury-born, internationally renowned artists – it will be Peter Robinson’s (Kāi Tahu) first solo exhibition Ōtautahi Christchurch and Ruth Watson’s first major exhibition in the city.

Robinson is also creating a new body of works for this special homecoming.

Local artists Hannah Beehre and Pauline Rhodes showcase the emerging and established talent of the city with Rhode’s practice spanning four decades and Beehre’s work growing in stature and recognition, as marked by her 2016 Parkin Prize for drawing award. They are joined by another local artist – Nathan Pohio (Waitaha, Kāti Mamoe, Kāi Tahu), who is confirmed for early 2019. Pohio’s photographic works and video installations have been exhibited throughout Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally, and he was a 2016 nominee for the country’s most prestigious art award, the
Walters Prize.

The programme is rounded out by Auckland-based artist Tiffany Singh, featuring two recent and timely large scale artworks promoting mindfulness and empathy, and the resettlement stories of immigrants and refugees in Aotearoa New Zealand; and Rachel Rakena (Ngāi Tahu, Nga Puhi), who exhibited at the 52nd Venice Biennale and explores and critiques the co-opting of indigenous people and their culture.

Acting CoCA Chair, Tony Chamberlain, says the announcement makes CoCA’s ambitions clear: “We want to provide engaging and though-provoking art that encourages people to have conversations about contemporary life in Aotearoa. Having such a line-up of talented and inspiring New Zealand contemporary artists helps us achieve that and also makes sure Christchurch audiences get to experience the high standard of work being created in this country. It is especially exciting to have such a strong contingent of Ōtautahi-based or connected artists. We hope the quality of work coming out of the city will make locals feel proud and help energise the next generation of local artists.”

Hannah Beehre: Mures, et Terram
16 December 2017 - 25 February 2018

In collaboration with Jonathan Smart Gallery, CoCA presents Mures, et Terram by Christchurchbased artist Hannah Beehre. This large, seven-panel drawing explores chance as both artistic strategy and subject. Expressive applications of ink on canvas create the chaotic composition from which mice, frogs and lizards emerge in finely sketched charcoal line. These small creatures are human surrogates created to evoke insecurities such as our to our inability to control life circumstances. Beehre explains:

“I was interested in creating an epic in which motion, chaos and instability were the main drivers. The narratives that surface within the work are based in situation and circumstance, describing actions and responses of those subjected to/overwhelmed by its violent nature . . . it contains for me a very human story of fear, loss and recovery.”

Hannah Beehre has exhibited in galleries, museums and events throughout Aotearoa New Zealand such as: Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu; City Gallery, Wellington; Blue Oyster Gallery, Dunedin; 2008 SCAPE Biennial, Christchurch; The Physics Room, Christchurch; Dunedin Public Art Gallery; The Dowse, Lower Hutt; Te Tuhi, Auckland; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington. Hannah gained a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Canterbury in 2000. She has been an Olivia Spencer Bower Trust Award Recipient, Artist in Residence at Scott Base, Antarctica and recently won the 2016 Parkin Prize for drawing. Hannah is represented by Jonathan Smart Gallery in Christchurch.

Ruth Watson: Geophagy
16 December 2017 - 18 February 2018

“Geophagy speaks to ... the global systems of production that destroy our planet ... a world depicted as a complex set of conflicting forces.” - Rebecca Boswell, Art and Australia

CoCA presents Geophagy, the first major Ōtautahi Christchurch exhibition by Canterbury born\ Auckland-based artist Ruth Watson. First exhibited at the Gus Fisher Gallery in Auckland, this critically acclaimed exhibition is reworked and up-scaled to respond specifically to CoCA's galleries.

Featuring a towering sculptural installation, poetic video works and photography, Watson explores how our relationship to the earth and each other is influenced by technology in complex ways. The artworks specifically provide an all-encompassing picture of how international transportation, instant communication, digital mapping and surveillance, environmental degradation and global migration have fundamentally changed our social fabric and natural ecosystem.

Ruth Watson is one of Aotearoa New Zealand's most respected artists. Her works have been exhibited extensively throughout New Zealand and internationally at museums and galleries such as the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Frankfurter Kunstverein; the Sydney Biennale; Gallery of Modern Art Brisbane; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb; Asia Society Gallery, New York; and the Kunst-Werke, Berlin.

Peter Robinson
3 March - 1 July 2018

CoCA is proud to present the first Ōtautahi Christchurch solo-exhibition by Auckland-based artist Peter Robinson. For this exhibition, Robinson is developing a new body of work that will sprawl throughout CoCA's gallery spaces with a number of sculptural forms made out of manipulated steel rod, felt, and acrylic.

Widely recognised as one of Aotearoa New Zealand's leading contemporary artists, Robinson's work has been exhibited extensively nationally and internationally. Robinson also has a strong connection to the Canterbury region being of Ngāi Tauhi descent, born in Ashburton and as a graduate of Ilam School of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury. He was New Zealand’s representative at the 49th Venice Biennale (2001), participated in the 13th Istanbul Biennale (2013), 11th and 18th Biennale of Sydney (1998/2012) and the 8th Baltic Triennale of International Art, Vilnius (2002). Robinson was nominated for the Walters Prize in 2006 for The Humours at Dunedin Public Art Gallery, and again in 2008 when he won for his exhibition ACK at Artspace, Auckland.

Tiffany Singh
14 July - 21 October 2018

CoCA presents a solo exhibition by Auckland-based artist Tiffany Singh featuring two recent largescale installations. Singh's expansive socially engaged artworks are influenced by Eastern and Western spiritual beliefs and the potential of art for promoting mindfulness and empathy. OM MANI PADME HUM (2017) is a monumental work consisting of over 7,000 metres of ribbon emblazoned with a Tibetan Buddhist mantra that is said to inspire compassion for others. The Journey Of A Million Miles Begins With One Step (2017) is an immersive multimedia installation and ambitious oral history project that records and shares resettlement stories of immigrants and refugees in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Tiffany Singh has exhibited throughout New Zealand and internationally. Her large-scale installations and collaborative works have featured in galleries Museums and Festivals such as the Auckland Arts Festival; the Auckland Art Gallery; the 18th Biennale of Sydney (2012); Medi(t)ation: Contemporary Asian Art Biennial at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (2011). Papakura Art Gallery; Govett Brewster, New Plymouth; and Artspace, Auckland. She has also undertaken residencies at the McCahon House in Titirangi and at the Montalvo Arts Centre in California. OM MANI PADME HUM was first exhibited at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery and The Journey Of A Million Miles Begins With One Step was created for the 2017 Headlands Sculpture on the Gulf on Waiheke Island.

Pauline Rhodes
3 November 2018 - 17 February 2019

“I seek to give evidence to ideas, activity and sensation in a world of complexity and
ambiguity.”- Pauline Rhodes

CoCA is proud to present a major exhibition by prominent Ōtautahi Christchurch artist Pauline Rhodes. With a practice spanning four decades, Rhodes is well known in Aotearoa New Zealand for her experimental site-specific works that engage with the natural environment and her expansive gallery-based installations that replicate the processes of entropy. Her works often include repurposed organic and human made materials such as weathered plastics, rusted steel, paper and driftwood that are arranged, stacked, propped and balanced. Key to her practice is an interest in encouraging a heightened sensorial engagement with the world through movement, observation, process and time.

Rhodes has been exhibited extensively throughout New Zealand in galleries, museums and events such as: Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington; Christchurch Art Gallery; ST PAUL St Gallery, Auckland; 2015 SCAPE Biennial, Christchurch; Adam Art Gallery, Wellington; Wellington City Art Gallery, Auckland Art Gallery, Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui.

Nathan Pohio
2 March - 30 June 2019

CoCA is proud to present a solo exhibition by Ōtautahi Christchurch-based artist Nathan Pohio (Waitaha, Kāti Mamoe, Kāi Tahu). Pohio's photographic works and video installations combine legacies of avant-garde art and cinema with indigenous social histories and philosophies of being, time and perception. His work has been exhibited throughout Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally in galleries, museums and events such as: SCAPE 8: New Intimacies (2015); Dunedin Public Art Gallery; Enjoy Gallery, Wellington; Artspace, Auckland; Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki; Te Tuhi, Auckland; City Gallery, Wellington; Physics Room, Christchurch; Te Puna O Waiwhetu Christchurch Art Gallery; Melbourne International Festival of the Arts; GOMA, Brisbane; NGV, Melbourne; Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, New Mexico; Documenta 14, Athens Greece and Kassel Germany (2017). Pohio was a Walters Prize nominee in 2016 and has undertaken residenciesin New Mexico, France and Australia.

Rachael Rakena
29 February - 28 June 2020

CoCA is proud to present a solo exhibition by artist Rachael Rakena (Ngāi Tahu, Nga Puhi). Rakena creates nuanced and visually alluring video, sculptural and performative works that explore a continuum of Māori tikanga through contemporary art practice. Through this motivation, her works often stand in resistance and critique of colonial and capitalist strategies that furtively attempt to limit or co-opt indigenous people and their culture. This aspect of her practice is most apparent in her work Haka Peepshow (2011) — an ambitious public work that responded to the exploitation of the haka and the male Māori body in marketing campaigns for the All Blacks during the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Rakena's work has been exhibited throughout Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally in galleries, museums and events such as: 52nd Venice Biennale; 2006 Biennale of Sydney; Frankfurter Kunstverein, Germany; Neuer Berliner Kunstverien; Bangkok Experimental Film Festival and University of Chicago Film Studies Center; City Gallery Wellington; Govett-Brewster Art Gallery; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa; Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu; and the 2004 SCAPE Biennial.

ENDS

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