Sauce’s must-sees at Aotearoa Art Fair 2024
Thoughtfully curated with a plethora of colourful diversity, the highly reputable Aotearoa Art Fair returns to Tāmaki Makaurau for 2024.
The Aotearoa Art Fair will exhibit emerging and established artists–weaving galleries and art pieces from New Zealand, Australia, and the wider Pacific Rim. As a celebration of expression and connection that transcends borders, it is set to be a definitive event in Aotearoa’s cultural calendar.
Set in the city’s heart, the AAF will be held at the Viaduct Events Centre from the 18th to the 21st of April. With many talented artists in the line-up this year, Sauce has rounded up seven artists you must not miss. Whether you’re an art expert or art-curious, there is something for everyone at the Aotearoa Art Fair this year.
Aroha Gossage
Gallery: ARTIS Gallery, Auckland, Aotearoa, New Zealand
Aroha Gossage has a beautifully light atmosphere that settles amongst her paintings. Her paintings portray matrilineal landscapes of her home ground–including Pakiri (North of Auckland) and Hauturu (Little Barrier Island). Using gentle, feather-touched brush strokes, Gossage imbues her spiritual connection with the land and her whenua. A sense of guardianship is created within her compositions–a reminder of our reciprocal relationship with Earth. Her 2022 piece, Wāhi Tapu (Sacred Place), which uses earthy-toned oils on canvas, is a piece you will want to look at with a closer eye.
박성환 Sung Hwan Bobby Park
Gallery: Föenander, Auckland, Aotearoa, New Zealand
As an emerging ceramic sculptorist from Tāmaki Makaurau, Sung Hwan Bobby Park is an artist who explores the relationship between objects and people. Born in South Korea, he draws inspiration from traditional Korean craft to create art that touches on identity in the current global environment. Through his clay works, he expresses the queer experience in the Korean Military, the essence of modern times, and the freedom to be himself. His piece, Btm Cheese Corn, is a thought-provoking display of his exquisite mind and playful skill.
Gretchen Albrecht
Gallery: Two Rooms, Auckland, Aotearoa, New Zealand
Gretchen Albrecht is one of New Zealand’s most well-loved abstract painters. Known to art lovers for her distinctive oval shapes, often swept with bold, vibrant splashes of colour, Albrecht’s pieces continue to captivate the viewer in a gestural manner. With a career spanning several decades, her work has been held across Aotearoa, involving spaces such as the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, and Te Papa Museum, Wellington. Her 2023 piece, Ceremonial (Mantle), will be on display for you to see at the AAF.
Tom Mackie
Gallery: SPA_CE, Hawkes Bay, Aotearoa, New Zealand
Wellington-based Tom Mackie manipulates static imagery as a gateway to new narratives. Mackie’s work tends to lean on the internet’s status as an ever-evolving archive, revisiting the past, questioning it, and synthesising it– “mobilising the static”, he calls it. His artwork is an ode to the space in which it is exhibited. The space his artwork takes up is courtesy of SPA_CE, a gallery based in Hawkes Bay. You can check out his most recent piece, New Beginnings, at the AAF.
Hannah Ireland
Gallery: Jhana Millers, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
Hannah Ireland (Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi) is a local Tāmaki Makaurau portraitist whose work traverses expressionism and abstraction. Ireland creates pieces to ponder and spectate upon, offering an introspective oasis. Her 2024 piece, Up on the Mountain, hints at personhood and individual character, simultaneously opening the doors to interpretation.
Zhu Ohmu
Gallery: McLeavey Gallery, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
From Taipei, Taiwan, Zhu Ohmu is an artist whose work is organically informed by the intersection of nature, humans, and technology. Inspired by 3D printing yet completely formed by hand, Ohmu works to support the resurgence of handmade ceramics. Since moving to the creative hotspot of Naarm, Melbourne, Australia, Ohmu has shifted from watercolour to a more multidisciplinary approach. Her 2023 pieces, Organ Pipe Mud Dauber #15 & Organ Pipe Mud Dauber #14, will be on full display for you to see.
Sarah Drinan
Gallery: FUTURES, Melbourne, Australia
Stepping into the human intricacies of emotion, pleasure, and play, Sarah Drinan’s painting practice has been beautifully informed alongside her work as an occupational therapist. Themes of satire and absurdity seen in her art honour the complex as well as the everyday fundaments of the human experience. Drinan’s piece, Dance Battle, exhibits issues relating to the body, sexuality, connectedness, desire, and vulnerability.
Words: Rosa O'Reilly
Imaged supplied by Aotearoa Art Fair
