Microscopic photo of five sponges: one is shaped like an X; a three-bladed windmill; an enoki mushroom; a fish hook; and a little explosion

Tēnei Papa TīoiThis Swaying Earth

He huihuinga whakaaturanga hou e whakapuaki ai e ngā ringatoi me ngā kaihanga i ō rātou hononga ki te ao tūroa.

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A suite of new exhibitions where artists and makers express their relationships with the natural world.

Header image
Wayne Barrar, ‘Porifera, (type) 5 forms, from Oamaru.’ From a slide by Klaus D. Kemp, 2013, 2013, colour pigment print. Courtesy of Wayne Barrar

Exhibition view showing a large painting on the wall in the centre, and four smaller paintings beside it on the right

Arranging Nature

This exhibition features works by artists and photographers including George Vernon Hudson, Nancy Adams, John Buchanan, Sarah Featon, Herbert Dobbie, and Ayesha Green.

Closed

23 Sep 2023 – 19 May 2024

Exhibition Ngā whakaaturanga

Wayne Barrar, Strew from north German coast (brackish) #2. NBS slide c. 1960, 2015, photograph – platinum/palladium print. Te Papa (O.049373)

Wayne Barrar: Mai i te Pūranga Kōata | From the Glass Archive

Diatoms are tiny organisms that live in oceans, rivers, and lakes. The 19th century saw a craze for arranging the silica skeleton fossils of diatoms and other micro-organisms on glass slides for viewing through microscopes. Photographer Wayne Barrar has delved into this ‘glass archive’ to explore its microscopic wonders.

Closed

23 Sep 2023 – 19 May 2024

Exhibition Ngā whakaaturanga

View of a gallery space. It is dimly lit. In the foreground hangs large pieces of kelp lit by a rainbow of neon lighting. In the background, projected onto the wall, is a video work comprising of many ceramic pots housing plants the are outgrowing them

This Natural World

This exhibition demonstrates how artists and makers work with nature – using forms and materials to connect with knowledge and stories held in the natural world around us.

Closed

23 Sep 2023 – 19 May 2024

Exhibition Ngā whakaaturanga

Installation view of the artwork “Extensum/Extensor”. It comprises of a long sheet of rusted paper which hangs from the ceiling and rolls out across the floor. On the floor part of the paper, thins rods in floor green stick out, like hairs

یکی بود یکی نبود | Tērā te Wā | Memory Spaces

Persian stories often begin with یکی بود یکی نبود (‘yeki bood, yeki nabood’), or ‘one was, one was not’. Here, artworks by Selina Ershadi and Pauline Rhodes explore ideas of presence and absence to tell stories about place and memory.

Closed

23 Sep 2023 – 19 May 2024

Exhibition Ngā whakaaturanga

Close-up of a hīnaki (eel trap) showing its weavings

Hīnaki: Contemplation of a Form

This exhibition provides a broad experience of hīnaki (eel traps). As well as displaying these taonga, it focusses on two early museum expeditions, Māori relationships with two significant rivers, and contemporary artworks related or responding to hīnaki.

Closed

10 Jun 2023 – 19 May 2024

Exhibition Ngā whakaaturanga

Landscape and Desire

This exhibition explores the different ways that artists in Aotearoa have expressed their relationship to the land – to the places we live in.

Closed

8 Oct 2022 – 19 May 2024

Exhibition Ngā whakaaturanga