10 exhibitions to see this month

Warren Feeney recommends an award-winning children’s book author/illustrator, a leading voice in contemporary Māori art and a visiting Australian artist’s exhibition of 179 “visual puns” ceramic cups.

1. Robyn Kahukiwa, Tangata Whenua

COCA Toi Moroki, 66 Gloucester St, Christchurch; till January 14.

Tangata Whenua brings together recent paintings by Robyn Kahukiwa (Ngāti Porou), an artist who mainstreamed Te Ao Māori (the Māori world), gaining national prominent in the 1984 exhibition Wāhine Toa: Women of Māori Myth. In 2010, academic Hinemoa Hilliard (Ngāti Kahi, Ngāpuhi) further highlighted Kahukiwa’s rejuvenation of Māori identity, stating: “The body of work that Robyn Kahukiwa has generated shows the world the complexity and diversity of what it means to be Māori.”

2. Martin Poppelwell, medium to large works small acts

and

Jonathan Smart Gallery, 52 Buchan St, Sydenham, Christchurch; till December 16.

The subjects and materials of Martin Poppelwell’s paintings reside between figuration and abstraction with an attitude characterised by its positivity and measured rationality. There is much to discover, including Poppelwell’s titles for his paintings as oblique, but illuminating narratives.

3. David Elliot, Wind and Waves

Ashburton Art Gallery, 327 West St, Ashburton; December 18 to February 11.

The recipient of numerous book awards, nationally and internationally, the modest scale of illustrator and author David Elliot’s publications is countered by their evocative, yet tangible subjects, and his commitment to Port Chambers and its ‘‘rivers of air and entities commanding the weather’’.

4. Nathan Ingram, Pressure Drop

Fiksate, 54 Hawdon St, Sydenham, Christchurch; till December 31.

Nathan Ingram’s (Dr Suits) Pressure Drop gets to the heart of the artist’s practice, mark – making as fundamental to its reason for being. As such, Pressure Drop is about refined gestures and marks that ascend, descend, expand and contract within and beyond the picture plane, spontaneous yet certain in the artist’s demarcation of their presence.

5. Karl Fritsch & Gerry Wedd, FRITSCH VS WEDD

The National, 249 Moorhouse Ave, Christchurch; till December 16. Australian potter Gerry Wedd is exhibiting 179 cups at The National, commenting: “Cups have been a major part of my making … teasing out silly ideas, visual puns and free association of three images on each.” Wedd exhibits alongside internationally renowned, contemporary jeweller Karl Fritsch’s 140 jewel-embedded rings and singular-casted objects.

6. Sue Syme, Dancing with Snakes

McAtamney Gallery, 49 Talbot St, Geraldine; December 13 to January 24.

Over four decades, painter and printmaker Sue Syme has given serious consideration to humanity as a social creature, yet often sharing conversations and relationships with other creatures, including birds, dogs or snakes. Echoes of European Expressionism abound, yet there is composure to the conversations between Symes’ subjects, both compelling and reassuring.

7. Stanley Palmer and Layla Walter with Kirstin Carlin

The Central Art Gallery, The Arts Centre, Toi Matatiki Toi Ora, 2 Worcester Blvd, Christchurch; December 3 to January 28.

Holding his first solo exhibition in 1965, Stanley Palmer belongs to an early and influential generation of professional artists in Aotearoa. In 2023, Palmer is acclaimed for his coastal landscapes, and the presence of a pervasive glowing light, nurturing the Pacific region and its inhabitants.

8. Group Exhibition, Photography

Orion Powerhouse Gallery, 1 Rue Pompallier, Akaroa; till December 31.

An exhibition that features the work of nine photographers: Emma Crew, Jason Crew, John Dean, Meg Errington, Bob Jones, Kaye Millar, Mark Scambary, Robyn Stuart and Chris Walker collectively documenting the South Island, its geography, plants and species, photographer Errington recording the Tasman region in an aerial view as an abstracted and specific geographical document.

9. Lonnie Hutchinson, Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection

Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Worcester Blvd; Ongoing.

Bringing new life to suburban wallpaper, Lonnie Hutchinson’s (Ngāti kuri ki Ngāi Tahu, Samoan, Celtic) Fresh Cut consists of 31 wallpaper pieces, her materials of choice given new context and possibilities, making Fresh Cuts extraordinarily unfamiliar.

10. Gathered Voices, Highlights from the Fletcher Trust Collection

Aigantighe Art Gallery, 49 Wai-Iti Rd, Timaru; till January 21.

Artworks from the Fletcher Trust’s art collection are currently touring Aotearoa, documenting 200 years of our art history. Gathered Voices includes paintings by Charles Frederick Goldie and Rita Angus, and our best-known abstract artist, Ian Scott, represented in Gathered Voices by an early neo-realist “New Zealand” painting from the 1960s.