Archive
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Tom Kreisler
Misrepresentations 26 September - 2 November 2024 With a guest appeaRance by Mitch Cairns It is with great pleasure that Sumer announces its latest exhibition, Misrepresentations, featuring works by the late Argentinian-born New Zealand artist Tom Kreisler (1938–2002). The exhibition features a selection of this important artist’s latter paintings and drawings; works dating from the late 1990s... Read more -
Sandra Bushby
Pouring Light 14 August - 14 September 2024 It is hovering in a zone, between taking form, registering and becoming, while also simultaneously being stubbornly out of reach, slipping from view and residing in a neverland. This is the scape that exists beyond the carriage window, a folding and whirling vaporous mass of tones, depths and wavering lines,... Read more -
Brian Fuata
Intermission (seini_transmit) 9 - 10 August 2024 Featuring Ngāsti (Aroha Scott & Tyson Campbell), Observed by John Miller OPEN REHEARSAL: FRIDAY 9 AUGUST, 11AM–5PM PERFORMANCE: SATURDAY 10 AUGUST, 6:30PM Sumer is delighted to present Intermission (seini_transmit), a new work by Sydney-based Samoan artist Brian Fuata. This performance sees the artist returning to the country of his birth,... Read more -
Gian Manik
MINE 3 July - 3 August 2024 Sumer is pleased to present its latest exhibition, MINE, by Naarm-based artist Gian Manik. The exhibition comprises a series of thirteen new paintings (all 2024), twelve of which the artist commenced making during a month-long residency at DESA, Ubud, Bali, and completed on his return to Australia earlier this year.... Read more -
Ruth Watson
Kosmos 23 May - 29 June 2024 We have all had little souvenirs at some time, whether bought or gifted. Wherever they come from, some of them we love, some of them make us cringe. They raise some questions: do they do their job of reminding us of a time, place, or event? It is a big... Read more -
Stephen Bram
17 April - 18 May 2024 Coinciding with the 2024 Aotearoa Art Fair, Sumer is pleased to present its latest exhibition by Naarm Melbourne-based artist Stephen Bram. This is the artist’s first exhibition with the gallery, and it is also his first solo exhibition in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. (The artist will be in attendance for the... Read more -
Michael Morley
After the War 6 March - 13 April 2024 Painting’s usefulness appears to have evaporated. At the turn of the last century, there was a wonderful moment where the development of abstraction heralded a new understanding of the image. But this soon was eroded—in order to render pictures of the view. What if there is no view? What if... Read more -
Ella Sutherland
Still Life with Argot 2 February - 2 March 2024 Sumer is pleased to present Still Life with Argot, an exhibition of new work by Aotearoa New Zealand-born artist Ella Sutherland. A reworking of the artist’s exhibition at Künsterhaus Bethanian which took place in July of last year, it showcases various works that were produced during her time there, as... Read more -
SUMMMER
13 December 2023 - 27 January 2024 Over the summer break, Sumer will be presenting highlights from its recent program, together with previously unexhibited works from gallery artists. The exhibition includes work by Brook Andrew, Sandra Bushby, Hikalu Clarke, Andrew Hazewinkel, Lara Merrett, and Brontë Stolz.
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Georgie Hill
Venus Marina / The Roses Came Roaring 27 October - 9 December 2023 It was the year he began to wonder about the noise that colors make. Roses came roaring across the garden at him. He lay on his bed at night listening to the silver light of stars crashing against the window screen. Most of those he interviewed for the science project... Read more -
Zina Swanson
Watering Shadows 14 September - 21 October 2023 Sumer is pleased to present Watering Shadows, an exhibition of new work by Ōtautahi Christchurch-based artist Zina Swanson. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Tāmaki Maukaurau Auckland, and their third solo exhibition with the gallery. A series of new figurative paintings and polychromatic sculptures (all 2023), this exhibition is the latest instalment of a broad ongoing project that the artist has undertaken over the past decade. Read more -
Cindy Huang
Tracing a Gilded Trail 9 August - 9 September 2023 Sumer is pleased to present Tracing a gilded trail by Tāmaki Makaurau-based artist Cindy Huang. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery.
The exhibition comprises a large multi-component installation: lily flowers, buds, petals, leaves and stamen, that festoon, nay litter, the gallery floor—jettisoned, dismembered, discarded. These are all objects that have been rendered by the artist’s hand in porcelain clay, life-size and painted in true likeness. Read more -
Jan van der Ploeg
Homage to the Circle 5 - 29 July 2023 Sumer is pleased to present Homage to the Circle, an exhibition of new work by renowned Dutch painter Jan van der Ploeg; this is the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. The exhibition comprises a frieze 12 new small paintings (all 2022), together with a large-scale commissioned wall drawing, and a single small painting of matching motif and palette. Read more -
Nova
31 May - 24 June 2023 Featuring new and recent works by Sandra Bushby, Xin Cheng, Hikalu Clarke, Ruth Cleland, Eleanor Cooper, Henry Curchod, Tjalling de Vries, Miles Hendricks, Yolunda Hickman, Jesse Hogan, Cindy Huang, Matthew Galloway, Lara Merrett, Michael Morley, Martyn Reynolds, James Oram, Sam Rountree Williams, Huseyin Sami, Brontë Stolz, Ella Sutherland, Zina Swanson,... Read more -
Ruth Cleland
Ground 10 November - 17 December 2022 Sumer is pleased to present Ground, an exhibition of recent work by Tāmaki Makaurau-based painter, Ruth Cleland. This is the artist’s first exhibition at the gallery. Ruth Cleland’s painting practice is one that merges hyperrealism with the abstract. Her works often depict common workaday surfaces—e.g. bitumen, concrete, vinyl, carpet. All... Read more -
Emily Ferretti
Hitting the Nail 29 September - 5 November 2022 Sumer is pleased to present Hitting the Nail, an exhibition of new paintings (all 2022) by Naarm/Melbourne-based artist Emily Ferretti. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Aotearoa.
Attuned to contemporary practice, Ferretti’s paintings engage with a history of picture making across genre and tradition. Influences of folk art and early modernist painting being clear to see (unashamedly so). Her work extends these artistic traditions, and in doing so makes her own indelible mark.
Dedicated to a full-time studio practice over the past fifteen years, Ferretti has exhibited widely and undertaken studio residences including Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, Cite de Arts International, Paris, and Green Street, New York. Her work is held in numerous public collections across Australia and private internationally.
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Hikalu Clarke
Dredge 25 August - 24 September 2022 Sumer is pleased to present Dredge, a new exhibition by Tāmaki Makaurau-based artist Hikalu Clarke. The show comprising of a series of new textile works, that the artist has worked upon over the past two years. This is the artist's first exhibition at the gallery. Fashioned from accumulated cast-offs, remnants,... Read more -
Sandra Bushby
Sea Garden 27 July - 20 August 2022 Sumer is pleased to present Sea Garden, an exhibition of new paintings by Tāmaki-based painter Sandra Bushby. The exhibition features paintings that formed part of her doctoral submission, which was presented earlier this year at Elam School of Fine Arts, the University of Auckland; together with newer works that she... Read more -
Natalie Guy
The Weight of the Door 27 July - 20 August 2022 Sumer is pleased to present The Weight of the Door, an exhibition of recent sculptural works (all 2020) by Tāmaki Makaurau-based artist Natalie Guy. This is the first exhibition of the artist’s work at the gallery. Using the bronze door handle from Notre-Dame du Haut as its source—Le Corbusier’s chapel... Read more -
Ella Sutherland
At Once Bridge and Chasm 2 June - 16 July 2022 Sumer is pleased to present At Once Bridge and Chasm, an exhibition of new paintings (all 2022), by Sydney-based artist, Ella Sutherland. This is the artist’s second solo exhibition at the gallery. Sutherland’s approach to making is broad and interdisciplinary, with her practice encompassing painting, printmaking, sculpture, installation, and publishing.... Read more -
Zina Swanson
The First Stick I Collected Was a Tree 21 April - 28 May 2022 It's true that the first stick I collected was a tree It was on Blenheim Road in Otāutahi I didn't drive at the time but I made James do a U-turn It looked lonely Dumped in an industrial area We hired a trailer and took it to the gallery It... Read more -
Michael Morley
Faint Harbours 16 March - 16 April 2022 Sumer is pleased to present Faint Harbours , recent paintings by Dunedin-based artist and musician Michael Morley. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. Foremost known as an experimental musician, Morley is a member of influential noise rock band The Dead C (together with Bruce Russell and... Read more -
Andrew Hazewinkel
Journeys in the Lifeworld of Stones (Displacements I–X) 29 January - 6 March 2022 Sumer is pleased to present the inaugural exhibition of its 2022 program: Journeys in the Lifeworld of Stones (Displacements I–X), a major body of recent photographic work by Athens-based artist Andrew Hazewinkel, created between 2010 and 2020. Journeys in the Lifeworld of Stones (Displacements I–X) focuses on a selection of... Read more -
Lara Merrett
Seventeen Days 18 November - 18 December 2021 Sumer is pleased to present Seventeen Days, an exhibition of new paintings, all 2021, by Sydney and South Coast-based artist Lara Merrett. This exhibition is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Aotearoa New Zealand. The exhibition’s title draws reference to a forest blockade that took place in 1996. An action... Read more -
Sarah Smuts-Kennedy
Joy Field 2 October - 13 November 2021 Sumer is pleased to present Joy Field, a suite of new large-scale drawings by Sarah Smuts-Kennedy. The works are documents of a series of scripted automatic actions undertaken by the artist in her studio over the past year; expanding upon a project that she first commenced during her time as a McCahon House Artist in Residence in 2016. Following intuition and meditative practices, the works function as expressions of the artist’s desire to reveal fields of energy. The artist describes them as Joy Fields: images which embody the positive joyful life-giving energy of a given moment, space or time. Read more -
Henry Curchod
Sharing the Sky 11 August - 25 September 2021 Sumer is pleased to present Sharing the Sky, an exhibition of new paintings (all 2021) by Sydney-based painter Henry Curchod.
Known for his large colourful figurative paintings, Curchod captures moments that are typically impressionistic, sensorial and fleeting. His work is one that also reflects his diverse cultural background. The son of Kurdish-Iranian and Anglo-American parents, his images reference a rich myriad of visual forms that are Asian, European and Oceanic in origin. Read more -
Julia Morison
Omnium Gatherum: Alembic 7 July - 7 August 2021 Sumer is pleased to present Omnium Gatherum: Alembic, a group of ten new paintings (all 2021) by acclaimed New Zealand artist Julia Morison ONZM. The paintings are the latest in an ongoing series of work that the artist first began six years ago, but whose enquiry and methodology connects to much of the artist’s expanded practice, which spans five decades. Read more -
Julian Dashper
Autumn 1989 3 June - 3 July 2021 Sumer is pleased to present Autumn 1989, an exhibition of paintings on paper by Julian Dashper. The exhibition comprises of a selection of previously unexhibited works which were produced across a few months in the earlier half of 1989. In many respects these paintings represent a pivotal moment or juncture... Read more -
Sonya Lacey
Bathers 17 March - 24 April 2021 Bathers presents footage shot at four pools located throughout the Wellington district: Freyberg Pools (Oriental Bay); Karori Swimming Pool; Tawa Pool; and the Wellington Aquatic Centre (Kilbirnie). Filmed in April when access to these facilities was prevented due to COVID-19 level four lockdown conditions, each work presents a range of... Read more -
André Piguet, Kathy Temin
New Forest 21 January - 6 March 2021 In the south of England there is a large wilderness which bears the name, New Forest. The placename alone is the best part of a thousand years old; the woodland is far older, ancient even. What is deemed ‘new’ is always relative. In everyday use, ‘new’ is used to describe... Read more -
Zina Swanson
Any Plant Thought of Too Much Will Not Thrive 19 November - 19 December 2020 Sumer is pleased to present Any Plant Thought of Too Much Will Not Thrive, an exhibition of new work by Zina Swanson. In these works (all 2020) Swanson draws on plant-related lore to interrogate the way we live with plants. Geraniums growing in an open window will prevent flies from... Read more -
Miles Hendricks, Lily McRae & Nichola Shanley
The Bower 19 November - 19 December 2020 Read more -
Ella Sutherland
FOLDS 17 October - 14 November 2020 Ivy In 1928 Stephen couldn’t find her room, while another contemplated the new words needed to describe it In the middle of the sixth arrondissement, in the middle of the night, a temple was reconfigured by invisible bodies Ongoing and haphazard, names sprawl from A l’amitié to the edge of... Read more -
Areez Katki
On Chroma 17 October - 14 November 2020 A series of tableaus by Areez Katki that survey the psychological resonances of colour and form through modes of mark making and abstraction. The works regenerate Katki’s thread of ethno-social implications, where a holistic craft materiality is employed through the process of needlework executed over hand-woven textiles. In this... Read more -
Andrew Hazewinkel
Rushing Air, Flooding Light 16 September - 10 October 2020 Sumer is pleased to present the first New Zealand solo exhibition by Athens-based Australian artist Andrew Hazewinkel, featuring two recent bodies of photographic work: The Antikythera Group (2017) and Asgelatas (Mt Kalamos) (2020). Hazewinkel’s work often engages archaeological material as a means to shed light on the contemporary legacies of... Read more -
Julia Morison
Myriorama: 11 31 July - 5 September 2020 Myriorama: a Victorian parlour game consisting of 16 to 24 pictorial cards of scenes with a horizon line that was consistent throughout. The cards could be assembled in a line, in any multitude of configurations, to create a panorama landscape (the possible configurations numbering in the millions). Taking inspiration from... Read more -
Yolunda Hickman & Michael Kennedy
Zombies Everywhere 1 - 25 July 2020 Deserted streets and the walking dead: the end of capitalism as dreamed in our collective imagination… Sumer is pleased to present Zombies Everywhere, its first physical exhibition since reopening post lockdown. The exhibition features recent work by Yolunda Hickman (Auckland) and Michael Kennedy (Melbourne). The exhibition brings together the work... Read more -
Jan van der Ploeg
Ready or Not 14 May - 20 September 2020 Sumer is pleased to present Ready or Not, an exhibition of new work by Dutch painter Jan van der Ploeg – his first solo exhibition with the gallery. The exhibition features a selection of works from the artist’s most recent series of paintings, all of which were produced over the past eight weeks in the artist’s Amsterdam studio whilst under Covid-19 lockdown. These works are accompanied by a new wall painting commissioned specifically for Sumer. Read more -
Ann Shelton
jane says 30 April - 17 May 2020 Presented as part of Auckland Art Fair 2020 Virtual Fair jane says depicts plants, herbs and flowers as diverse as peony, rue, sage and pennyroyal, which feature in recipes for tonics and tinctures that have been used historically in attempts to control conception or to bring on menstruation and/or abortion.[1]... Read more -
Ella Sutherland
Letters 30 April - 17 May 2020 Presented as part of Auckland Art Fair 2020 Virtual Fair Equal parts historiography and explication of form, Letters delves into the intricacies of public and private language. Tracing a path toward alternative queer histories, Ella Sutherland draws on the sensibilities of clandestine correspondence, medieval illumination and vernacular design to position... Read more -
Sam Rountree Williams
7 March - 9 April 2020 I guess I'll start by stating something which is more an observation than a question: thinking back, what originally drew me to your work was that I found it to be different from a lot of painting which is presently doing the rounds. Your work did not immediately make me... Read more -
Sandra Bushby
Painting Poems 7 March - 9 April 2020 Through two language systems, painting's formal language of colours, spaces and lines, and the linguistic signs and structures of written (and spoken) poems - punctuation, line breaks, breaths - I explore the occurrence of intervals within these two different semiotic systems. My aim is to bridge between these two formal... Read more -
Kelcy Taratoa
He Kauhanga Tawhiti 25 January - 29 February 2020 Sumer is pleased to present its first exhibition for 2020: He Kauhanga Tawhiti; a painting installation by Tauranga-based artist Kelcy Taratoa. For this exhibition Taratoa presents a series of new paintings installed over a wall painting, wherein pale grey shadow-like forms have been painted directly on the walls of the... Read more -
Michael Harrison, John Roy
Can't Talk Now 23 November - 14 December 2019 Sumer is pleased to present its latest exhibition Can't Talk Now, bringing together the work of painter Michael Harrison and ceramicist John Roy. The exhibition title, proffered by Roy and accepted without complaint by Harrison, seems entirely appropriate for the terrain navigated by both artists within their respective practices. One... Read more -
Raukura Turei
Te poho o Hine-Ruhi 19 October - 16 November 2019 It started with grief. Raukura Turei is candid when she talks about the origins of her art practice. Initially is was repetitive movement which found her drawing. Finding solace in repetitious action, becoming entranced. These were days spent alone in a friend's apartment, during winter in a foreign city on... Read more -
Dan Arps, Shane Cotton, Simon Denny, Kate Newby, Michael Parekowhai, Sriwhana Spong & Peter Stichbury
Michael Lett at Sumer 27 - 28 September 2019 Sumer is pleased to present a joint presentation with our colleagues Michael Lett, Auckland. The exhibition features a selection of recent and historical works by artists that feature in Michael Lett's gallery program—Dan Arps, Shane Cotton, Simon Denny, Kate Newby, Michael Parekowhai, Sriwhana Spong and Peter Stichbury. Read more -
Henry Curchod
Bitter Winds 24 August - 21 September 2019 In each of these works (all 2019), a scenario appears to be in play. Curchod's works invoke a clear sense of narrative, while remaining consistently opaque: as viewers, we are witness to neither introduction nor resolution. The 'bitter winds' of the title, a tempest, blow visibly through many of presented... Read more -
MEATWARE
21 July - 17 August 2019 Sumer is pleased to present its latest exhibition MEATWARE. The show brings together a group of practitioners from New Zealand, Australia, and the United States; included are works by Simon Denny, Lewis Fidock & Joshua Petherick, Yolunda Hickman, Jess Johnson & Simon Ward, Andrew McLeod, Luke Libera Moore, Sean Peoples,... Read more -
Turumeke Harrington
26 June - 19 July 2019 Design School taught me how to think about materials - how to consider us and our needs. It gave me the skills to figure out how to get things done. Art School taught me how to think about materials too; but the how, what, why and for whom was far... Read more -
Andrew Beck
Distortions 26 April - 26 May 2019 Reflected morning light dancing on the ceiling of a bedroom; a crack of light spilling into a darkened corridor from a door left ajar; sunlight refracting on facet of glass - moments like these which would normally be so fleeting, ephemeral and slight, here appear static, crystalline. The varying phenomena... Read more -
Elizabeth Thomson
16 March - 20 April 2019 Working at the interface between art and various forms of natural science, Elizabeth Thomson can, at times, be described as a surrealist-at other times she is a detached observer/investigator of the arcane and the remote. Drawing on the abstract language of music, philosophy and mathematics, Thomson's art is also... Read more -
Dashper, van der Ploeg & Walters
2 February - 9 March 2019 This exhibition brings together the work of Gordon Walters (1919-1995), Julian Dashper (1960-2009) and Jan van der Ploeg (b.1959). These artists' work shares common adherence to the aesthetic conventions of geometric abstraction or hard-edge painting; however such a simple explanation belies the more subtle and specific relationships that exist between... Read more -
Anoushka Akel, Richard Bryant, Miles Hendricks, Milli Jannides, Josey Kidd-Crowe, Lara Merrett & Séraphine Pick
The Widening Gyre 1 - 22 December 2018 Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full... Read more -
Fiona Pardington
27 October - 24 November 2018 Dr. Fiona Pardington MNZM, Chevalier de l'Ordre Française des Arts et des Lettres (b. 1961), of Māori and Scottish descent (Kai Tahu, Kati Waewae, Ngāti Kahungunu, Clan Cameron of Erracht, MacDonald and O'Neill). Her photography explores themes of memory, time, history, photographer and subject. By photographing taonga Māori (historical... Read more
