Stitched in sugar fields and silence,
this story is watched by two cats,
moving softly through fabric, shadows, and years,
holding women’s tenderness and memory,
and the desires they were never taught to name.
CONTACT
Instagram:
Needle work @needlework_rae
Drawing @rueithefox
Teshigoto - Japanese for “hand-work” - celebrates slow making through visible stitches, thoughtful repair, and objects that carry stories. Rooted in the aesthetics of mending and reuse, this exhibition honors repairs as marks of care that deepen an object’s beauty.
The collective features:
Showa-ya (Atsuko McCallum): Originally from Iwate, Atsuko breathes new life into unworn vintage kimono. She creates dresses, bags, and cartonnage boxes, weaving Japanese culture into every piece, including her handmade dolls.
KuroKogin (Shinobu Kuroda): Hailing from Saitama, Shinobu has designed kogin-zashi since 2008. She honors traditional motifs while reimagining patterns into contemporary styles, bringing intricate counted embroidery to everyday fabric goods.
The exhibition also features guest collaborators Emma Thomas, specializing in tsumami-zaiku and origami, and Michael Allread, who creates Japanese masks. Together, these artists showcase a distinctive collection of upcycled textiles and traditional craftsmanship that celebrates the character of handmade objects.
EVENTS
Opening Event
Tuesday 3 March, 5:30pm
Open to all. Booking is essential for Tea Ceremony
Book online at Eventfinda
Chiku-Chiku Cafe (Social Stitching)
Wednesday 4 March, after 4pm
Thursday 5 March, after 4pm
Kogin Embroidery: A Traditional Japanese Counted Sashiko Workshop
Friday 6 March, 5 - 5.30pm
Saturday, 7 March, 2:30 - 3pm
Register online: Kogin Embroidery
CONTACT
Email | Website | Instagram | Facebook
Images
Showa-ya (Atsuko McCallum), vintage kimono upcycled goods and dolls
KuroKogin (Shinobu Kuroda), kogin embroidery works
Emma Thomas, tsumami zaiku (folded fabric) works
Michael Allread, Japanese mask
This series of ‘tree of life’ paintings have been created to stimulate personal investigation and self-inquiry as well as to be beautiful and out of the ordinary. For thousands of years the tree has symbolised powerful universal motifs such as life, death, fertility and metamorphosis, and even the ensouled human being itself. This ancient and timeless understanding of ‘the tree’ underlies the contextual foundation for these creative works. ‘I see my paintings as visual metaphors and empowering talisman that can be experienced as meditations, each exploring one of eight themes – Courage, Letting Go, Protection, Boundaries, Transformation, Karma, Renewal and Awakening.’ 'I believe that each of these paintings offers a door, a pathway, to wholeness and to physical and spiritual agency in helping ameliorate the dehumanising pressures that assail us in these troubled times.'
Would you like to borrow one of these paintings? These paintings are not for sale; they are for loan. Whether you are an individual, group, community, organisation, school or venue. The idea is for these works to continue as conduits for self-discovery, awakening and personal exploration – and for creative workshops to continue to be facilitated in union with each piece.
EVENTS
The Sacred Grove Interactive Experience
Please come and work with the themes of the paintings within the exhibition space. There will be activity sheets for adults that relate to five of the painting's themes, and a table with art materials for you to quietly undertake a mindful creative response to these works. Emily Rose will be there to help guide and facilitate too. No booking required.
The Easter Triptych Workshop: Exploring the Self through Art and Creativity
Sunday 1 March, 9am – 12.30pm
$90 per person.
Herbal tea & snack provided.
Facilitated by the artist Emily Rose Fletcher and Mark Geard of Alamandria.
In this workshop we will be exploring the themes of The Easter Triptych painting in The Sacred Grove series, within the gallery space at Thistle Hall. We will be partaking in group sharing and creative and artistic activities as a pathway into the themes of the three trees of life that appear on each panel – such as letting go, transformation, renewal and love – specifically in connection to our own personal journeys.
Join Emily Rose Fletcher and Mark Geard for an enriching, creative morning filled with their signature humour, depth and creative insights.
For more information and registration visit:
https://www.alamandria.co.nz
Images
Emily Rose Fletcher, The Tree of Protection, paint
Emily Rose Fletcher, The Tree of Awakening, paint
Emily Rose Fletcher, The Tree of Transformation, paint
CONTACT
Artists:
Judith Maxim, Jeanie Randall, Grant Price, John Randall, Jo Constable, Peter Randall
Come along to Thistle Hall, February 16-22 to delight & ignite your senses. We are six artists joining together to display our unique methods of working with the elements of wood, bronze, copper, ink, paint and paper. We six artists will have on display; paintings, printmaking, photography, wood turning, bronze sculpture, jewellery and handmade books. The artists will be working on various pieces throughout the exhibition and on Saturday 21 February will be having a printmaking demonstration from 1-2pm.
EVENTS:
Tuesday 17 February, 5pm-late: Opening event
Saturday 21 February, 1-2pm: Printmaking Demonstration
CONTACT:
Instagram: @thedesignspace_nz
60 photographic prints. Contemporary Wellington based images.
Also showing a significant number of earlier works including past exhibition
photos.
CONTACT
Instagram: @f32_studio_nz
Tauranga-based artist Cordula Taiwo is set to open her exhibition Of a Wild God at Thistle Hall, intentionally overlapping with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ Wellington concerts (5 & 6 February). This sophisticated body of work is a deeply personal creative response to Nick Cave’s music, his public correspondence (The Red Hand Files), and his published conversations (Faith, Hope and Carnage).
The exhibition features 15 paintings and voice recordings, presenting a profound dialogue on life, loss, and the transformative power of faith and art.
Read more Scoop Article
CONTACT
Website: //cordulataiwo.com
Instagram: @cordula_taiwo_art
Images
Cordula Taiwo, The Wolf Man of Montezuma, paint on canvas
Cordula Taiwo, The Wedding, paint on canvas
A Nontropolis is an old-world-charm tiny town, village, or neighbourhood, that grew organically over time. The word Nontropolis is a neologism, coined by multi media artist Marcel. This exhibition features 650 colourful miniature Italian inspired town houses in wood, urban sketches of Nontropolises from places like Italy, Greece, Spain, and Malta. Works feature on paper, driftwood, gift items like T-shirts, and even furniture. And then there is the book: '100 Love Stories' by Lynsey Gedye, a friend of Marcel. The book was inspired by Nontropolis, and written about the people living in Nontropolis. With 100 Love stories of every kind promising laughter that surprises you, tears you never knew you needed, reckonings and reunions, courage and tenderness, it is a captivating read. Lynsey will launch his book on Saturday 31st January. Some stories have become short films, which will be screened during the artist talk and book launch.
EVENTS
Artist talk Wed 28 January 5:30
Book launch Sat 31 January 2:00
Portfolio Sale Sunday 1 February 11-2
CONTACT
Website: www.nontropolis.art
Email: marcel.baaijens@gmail.com, Lynsey.Gedye@gmail.com
Instagram: @nontropolis
Images
Marcel Baaijens, Tongariro, wood and paint
Marcel Baaijens, Capistrano, paint
In My Dreams is a whimsical, vibrant, first ever, solo exhibition by artist Hannah Truly, featuring an enchanting collection of miniatures, floral paper sculptures, original paintings & prints, hand-crafted zines, tiny furniture, and beaded tapestry. Stepping into this show will feel like entering a fairy ring — a place of beauty, magic, enchantment, a place to uncover mysteries.
Taking you on a journey through a constructed hallucination, reconstructing the hazy, glittery landscape within a dream. Falling into the loop of losing touch, creating, losing touch, only to find your way back to the comfort of a decadent delirious dream. In an effort to extricate oneself from the realities of the world into a place where disassociation becomes daydream becomes magical fantasy, where motherhood becomes the key to unlocking your own childhood. A space where childhood melds with motherhood.
CONTACT
Instagram: @hannahtrulyart
John (Hans) Less (1923-2011) and Marie Vandewart Blaschke (1911-2005), born in Berlin, fled Germany to escape the Nazi regime’s persecution of Jews and settled in New Jersey and New Zealand respectively. When their sons met in 1981, they discovered their shared heritage, including the art which played a central role in their parents’ lives.
Although the artworks in the Less and Blaschke collections contrast in style, similarly dramatic circumstances characterise their origins and preservation. We invite you to view highlights from both collections in this unique New Zealand show, featuring original watercolours of John Less and diverse German graphics from around the turn of the 20th century. Together, they provide a unique example of universal refugee experiences.
CONTACT
Website: www.blaschkearttrust.com
Further information: paul@blaschkerutherford.co.nz
Exhibition kindly supported by:
Goethe-Institut New Zealand
Te Kura o ngā Reo me ngā Tikanga-ā-iwi School of Languages and Cultures, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington
and generous private donors
Images
Max Lieberman, Im Tiergarten (In the Zoo Gardens), etching, circa 1905
John Less, Rebuilt house with grocery store by refugee in Hongkew/Shanghai, 1940
Max Pechstein, Die Brücke (In the Studio), 1917
FEATURING GOOD STUFF BY: melissa boardman . baron hasselhoff’s . galit maxwell pottery . genevieve packer . hmxhm . jackelope treasures . nana glamour . anna venture . oh goodness . simply kawakawa . gael cherian . snaxpax . lilla bean . carofeno . much much . lachy . sam brown . the foliage studio . 2 minute needles . analogue . julie+jack . indi & wild . commonkind . side quest . sarah drake ceramics . shoreline studio . scotty’s provisions . holland road yarn co .
6 DAYS OF GOOD STUFF MADE BY GOOD PEOPLE. YOUR PURCHASES HAVE POWER. SHOP LOCAL. MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
CONTACT
Erin Jaeger-Freeborn's solo show The Unity of Opposites are a series of sculptures in response to the pre-Socratic philosophy of Heraclitus, where seemingly contradictory forces are not only interconnected but essential to each other's existence. The forms oscillate between tension and harmony, precision and gesture, structure and chaos, movement and stillness.
The sculptures, composed of thousands of hand-cut pieces of paper, form undulating surfaces suggesting motion and depth. Inspired by rivers, currents, wind patterns and topographical mapping the pieces capture the quiet energy of natural systems. From afar the sculptures appear fluid and organic but upon closer viewing reveal the precision of numerous deliberate placements. Ultimately the sculptures suggest that identity, perception and nature are dynamic negotiations, born not of stillness but from continual exchange.
CONTACT
Website: jaegerfreeborn.wixsite.com
Instagram: @jaegerfreeborn_art
You cannot help but be shaped by the sea, wind and earth living on the southern end of Te Ika-a-Māui. In turn, we use our hands to give form to the inevitable connection we feel to these places. Five artists connected to the Greater Wellington region - the Kāpiti Coast, Ngaio, Wairarapa, and the South Coast - bring together their art across mixed mediums (sculpture, paintings, drawings, ceramics, jewellery) to share their love for nature. All artists are connected through The Learning Connexion in Taita, Lower Hutt.
EVENTS
Friday: Sarah Laidler will be painting on site
Saturday: Jess will work on site
CONTACT
Kirsty Glasgow: @kirsty_glasgow_artist
Yorka: @yorka.artist
Sarah Laidler: @sarahlaidlerart
Pax MacKenzie: @theuplandroad_presents
Dan Wilkinson: @wilkinson_creative
Made by Maranga is a made up of a group of creative adults with intellectual disabilities who have made bespoke products to show case their talents to the community.
Steve Cochrane has been collecting music posters since the late 1970s.
By the mid eighties he was importing posters from Europe and selling them mail order through Rip It Up magazine, which evolved into both wholesale and retail.
In 1985, Steve joined post punk luminaries Skank Attack and began pasting posters on Wellingtons streets. Eventually, casual work led to his first poster distribution company The Stick Up!.
Steve returned to the music industry and poster game a while ago, with his print and distribution company Pasted!, and remains an active musician and promoter. Despite selling a lot of stuff stuff along the way, Steve still has an extensive poster collection acquired from a vast array of sources. There's Flying Nun gems like Skeptics, The Chills, The Bats and Bailter Space, there's Shihad, Split Enz, and Space Waltz, along with NZ tour posters of REM, Mick Jagger, Billy Bragg .....
All works are for sale
EVENTS
Live Music in Thistle Hall - Saturday 22nd from 7pm
CONTACT
Email: steve@pasted.co.nz
Gifts from the Sea showcases art works by three Wellington women who share a deep love and respect for our south coast. Each of us draws on our creative skills to bring attention to the beauty and fragility of the underwater world. We are each conservationists at heart.
Margaret Elliot Using fine pastels and pigmented oils, Margaret brings the vibrant underwater world alive from photographs she takes when she is out snorkeling in the Taputeranga Reserve.
Mary Livingston has spent many years with her camera photographing our south coast. She braves all weathers to catch the mood of the blue waters that rage and seethe unpredictably, tearing sea life from their refugia.
Nicole Miller has made seaweed the centre of her life. The documentary Seaweed, A Love Story' narrates her work to protect Wellington's kelp forests and bring the beauty of the marine world to the surface through art & storytelling.
EVENTS:
Opening Event
Tuesday, 6pm
Artist talk - Mary Livingston
Wednesday, 6 - 7.30 pm
Mary Livingston will share some of the stories behind her breathtaking photographs of Wellington’s South Coast.
Artist talk - Margaret Elliot
Friday, 6 - 7.30 pm
Hear from Margaret Elliot how she creates stunning artworks inspired by Wellington’s South Coast.
Documentary film screening - Seaweed, A Love Story with Artists Q&A
Saturday, 6 - 7.30 pm
Join us for a screening of Nicole Miller's award-winning short documentary Seaweed, A Love Story followed by a Q&A with the artists about how art deepens their connection and shapes their relationship with the ocean. Ticketed event.
Tickets: humanitix.com/an-evening-of-ocean-art-and-film
CONTACT
Website: www.oceanart.co.nz/giftsfromthesea
Margaret Elliot
Website: margaretelliot.co.nz
Instagram: @margaretelliot
Mary Livingston
Instagram: @erddigg
Facebook: Mary Livingston
Nicole Miller
Website: www.oceanart.co.nz
Instagram: @nicole.miller.nz , @exploreyourcoast
Facebook: Nicole Miller
#GiftsFromTheSea #OceanArtNZ
Images:
Margaret Elliot, painting
Mary Livingston, photograph
Nicole Miller, photograph
We each can see different colours differently, for some a variation in shading and for others a change in richness. We can recognise a world with the colours inverted and follow a story told in colour while following the one told in line.
Even the dullest blue grey day leaves some colour and on the brightest of days all the saturation is stripped away, and the colour is mixed with bright white. This exhibition highlights the invisible, presents a face of entropy, offers characters to explore with and a series of abstract Wellington landscapes.
CONTACT
Instagram: @francis1frances2
An exhibition exploring the theme of "Veil" through Japanese crafts, touring two venues in New Zealand. Focusing on the delicate and ephemeral nature of materials such as Japanese paper (washi), white porcelain, wool, and incense, visitors can experience a quiet world of expression where visual and sensory perceptions intertwine as if dissolving into the air. The concept of "Veil" symbolizes both concealment and revelation, boundaries and expansion. The works range from those with a lightness that seems to drift in space to others that engage the sense of touch. Through expressions woven with culture, memory, and personal experience, this exhibition offers a fresh perspective and beauty shaped by the techniques and sensibilities of Japanese artists.
Exhibition Curator - Rieko Woodford-Robinson
EVENTS
Workshops
Wednesday 29 October
Traditional Notebook Making using Washi (Japanese Paper) and book binding techniques
Time: 5:30 – 7:30pm
Fee: NZD 100
*Limited to 10 Participants
Kintsugi (repairing broken ceramics) SOLD OUT
Time: 5:30 – 7:30pm
Fee: NZD 150 (includes tools)
*Limited to 4 Participants
Tea Ceremony
Saturday 1 November
Tea ceremony demonstrations by Wellington Omote-Senke Tea Ceremony Club.
Experience authentic tea ceremony demonstrations, each followed by the serving of matcha tea prepared with high-quality, ceremony-grade matcha from Japan and traditional sweets.
Proudly supported by Wellington Sakai Association.
Time: 1.15 – 3:30pm
Rolling performance followed by serving
Fee: Free
Workshops
Sunday 2 November
Traditional Notebook Making using Washi (Japanese Paper) and book binding techniques
Time: 10:00am – 12:00pm
Fee: NZD 100
*Limited to 10 Participants
Kintsugi (repairing broken ceramics) SOLD OUT
Time: 10:00am – 12:00pm
Fee: NZD 100
*Experience only
*Limited to 4 Participants
CONTACT
Instagram:
Kimiko Suzuki @kimikosuzuki_
Chiaki Morita @morita_chiaki
TOKYO KODO @tokyokodo_jp
Megumi Woolford @wool.stones
Images
Chiaki Morita, washi Japanese paper art
Kimiko Suzuki, white porcelain
Megumi Woolford, wool wall art
The Skullduggery Art Show is back for 2025!
Celebrate the spooky season with some creatively excellent original art! Paintings, sculpture, models and craft are all on display. All of the art is Halloween horror or supernaturally inspired and you are guaranteed to see something you haven’t seen before! Skullduggery showcases the work of 60 professional artists; many from the local film, television and games studios. Entry to the show is free and some of the art is for sale!
ARTISTS
Amit Dutta, Andrew Baker, Andrew Durno, Andy Shaw, Anna Johnstone, Anton Gustilo, Anton Becic, Bill Hunt, Cassandra Lopez, Cheryl Ong, Christopher Menges, Christian Pearce, Claire Tobin, Clark Roworth, Dana Franklin, Daniel Falconer, Dido, Dr Morse, EJ Thorpe, Garry Buckley, Gino Acevedo, Gus Hunter, Imery Watson, Iona Brinch, Ivan Vegar, Jerome Moo, Joe Harlow, Justin Haozhe Cheung, Johny Fraser-Allen, Joaquin Loyzaga, Kim Seng, Lindsay Crummett, Malango, Katz Artelier, Matty Rodgers, Marc Johnston, Nathan Tucker, Nick Keller, Nyssa Skorji, Otis Chamberlain, Paul Tobin, Rebekah Tisch, Ross Murray, Sam Balzer, Sam Bee, Sanit Klamchanuan, Simona Tositti, Skye Liu Tianzi, Sonya Howard, Stacey Robson, Stacy Ambrose Wilde, Stephen Crane, Stephen Sebastian Njoto, Stephen Lambert, Steven Saunders, Dr Tanya Marriott, Thomas Oates, Tom Robinson, T.Wei, Warren Mahy, William Furneaux
EVENTS
Friday 24 October
5pm and 6pm
Skullduggery Art Show Guided Tour - Join the show Producers for a tour of the exhibition, hear about the artists and the art. Bookings essential through Eventfinda.
Sunday 26 October
1pm - 2pm
Costumed life drawing class in the gallery
FREE
CONTACT
Website: www.whitecloudworlds.com
Instagram: @skullduggery_art_show
Image
Poster by Christian Pearce @p_e_a_r_c_e
SPLINK is an exhibition that celebrates the eclectic, experimental spirit at the heart of my jewellery practice. The title itself, a made up word, reflects my playful and intuitive approach to making - unbound by tradition and open to discovery.
Each piece emerges from hands-on exploration, where materials and techniques are tested, reimagined, and transformed. Aluminium and Perspex sit alongside knitted and manipulated textiles, offering unexpected dialogues between industrial, synthetic, and hand-crafted elements. This restless curiosity fuels my process: as I look to not just adorn the body, but to expand what jewellery can be.
The exhibition also extends into its own staging, with custom-made stands dressed in ‘garments’ I have created, echoing the experimental energy of the jewellery itself. SPLINK invites viewers into a space where material, form, and imagination collide - an evolving conversation between adornment, object, and display.
CONTACT
Instagram: @phillipageejewellery
Cerys Wiles’ and Frankie Matchitt-Millar’s practices reflect light back at each other, eroding the boundaries of individual art-making to a collective, ongoing discussion. Holding between them skills of painting, drawing, installation, ceramics, performance, and writing, this duo returns discipline to curiosity, following threads of embodied practice and wide scholarly research.
In Erosion is a Soft Force, Wiles and Matchitt Millar erode these boundaries of creative practice further. Working closely together, both the artists and their work engage in a correspondence. Across the white wall gallery, a delicate sound asks what this place might be beyond the infrastructure we have built to push change back. Here, institutional critique gives way to reciprocal relationships activating the deep care and potential of naturally eroding forces. Together, these artists explore their positionalities, reorienting themselves to face the wind and see what detritus falls from their skin to meet the land.
CONTACT
Cerys Wiles: @_wiles_wiles
Frankie Matchitt-Millar: @franklynui
Kieran Trainor: @redpaintyellowpaint