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Te Pūkenga Whakaata
 

OPEN DAILY: 10:00am – 4:30pm
Except Christmas Day and Good Friday

FREE ENTRY
Shed 11, 60 Lady Elizabeth Lane
Wellington Waterfront 6011

 

Exhibitions
2025 Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award
May 22
2025 Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award

The Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award is a competition that encourages young Maaori artists to create portraits of their tupuna (ancestors) in any medium. The Award is hosted and administered by Te Pūkenga Whakaata the New Zealand Portrait Gallery in honour of the late Maaori King, Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII.

Julia B. Lynch: A Dedicated Life
Jun 19
Julia B. Lynch: A Dedicated Life

This exhibition will focus on three aspects of Lynch’s artistic career: portraits painted for competitions (for instance she entered the famous Australian Archibald Portrait Prize four times), controversial portraits (her portrait of Mayor Percy Dowse, Lower Hutt was taken down at the Dowse but in 1984 the director was told to reinstate it against his dislike for it) and portraits of her students, of which there are many.

Image: Julia Lynch, Self-portrait, c.1924, private collection.

Me: Artists Paint Themselves
Aug 28
Me: Artists Paint Themselves

Delving into the complicated multiplicities of self-perception and identity, this exhibition presents a selection of innovative painted self-portraits by modern and contemporary artists from Aotearoa New Zealand.

Image: Sacha Lees, Sometimes an Outline Coloured In, 2020. Collection New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata, winner of the Adam Portraiture Award 2020.

 

Public Programmes
Toi Tiki with Shannon Te Rangihaeata Clamp
Aug 2
Toi Tiki with Shannon Te Rangihaeata Clamp

Join 2025 Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award Highly Commended ringatoi Shannon Te Rangihaeata Clamp as he teaches how to identify and create different iwi tiki face styles using specific mātauranga-a-iwi and hapū, as well as practice and learn the meaning of carving patterns. By the end of the session, you will have created your own small tiki face on wood using the same technique Shannon uses in his mahi toi.

This is a paid workshop; tickets can be purchased from our website or in person at the Gallery Store. Spots are limited, so secure your ticket today! $10 unwaged | $20 waged.

Image: Shannon Te Rangihaeata Clamp (Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Koata), Te Rangihaeata and Te Rangitopeora, 2024


Wānanga - Mana Toi Mana Rangatahi
Aug 10
Wānanga - Mana Toi Mana Rangatahi

Nau mai haere mai, join us for a wānanga on what it means to be a young tangata whenua artist working and creating in Aotearoa. Facilitated by Curator and Artist Israel Randell who will be joined by ringatoi Aroha Matchitt-Millar, Enjoy Curator Brooke Pou and Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award 2025 winner Jazmin Tainui Mihi Paget-Knebel.

Image: Jazmin Tainui Mihi Paget-Knebel (Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Whakatohea, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Hine), Taniwha Chasers, 2024

Closing Celebration
Aug 16
Closing Celebration

Join us as we farewell the 2025 Kiingi Tuhetia Portraiture Award exhibition in Pōneke and announce the winner of the $2,500 Forsyth Barr People's Choice Award, for the most popular artwork as chosen by exhibition visitors. 

Monthly Life Drawing
Aug 30
Monthly Life Drawing

Have a go at portraiture in a relaxed setting with our koha monthly life drawing sessions.

A Day in The Life
Sep 6
A Day in The Life

Have you ever wondered what daily life might have looked like for Sister Lawrence (Julia B. Lynch)? Or the difference between a sister and a nun?  Or how the lives of women within the Sisters of Mercy have evolved from the 1900s to today?  Join Sister Natalie as she shares stories and insights into the life of a sister and helps us envision what an average day may have been like for Julia B. Lynch—Sister Lawrence. 

Image: Julia Lynch, Self-portrait, c.1924, private collection.

 
Touring Exhibitions
Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award 2023 - Tūhura Otago Museum
Mar 20
Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award 2023 - Tūhura Otago Museum

The Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award is a biennial competition that provides emerging Māori artists with the opportunity to showcase their talents on the national stage, while also playing an important role in recording and celebrating tūpuna and their stories.

Image: Marie Kyle, Between Worlds, acrylic on linen (finalist)

He Riri Awatea: Filming the New Zealand Wars - Canterbury Museum
May 9
He Riri Awatea: Filming the New Zealand Wars - Canterbury Museum

A fresh take on stories of Ngā Pākanga o Aotearoa, the New Zealand Wars, as portrayed in film. This exhibition shows the making and remaking of our history as interpreted through various films, television series, and digital storytelling formats.

Image: Anzac Wallace stars in the 1983 film Utu.

Robyn Kahukiwa: Tohunga Mahi Toi - Waikato Museum, Hamilton
May 16
Robyn Kahukiwa: Tohunga Mahi Toi - Waikato Museum, Hamilton

Robyn Kahukiwa’s artworks have made a difference to Māori. They have provided not only beauty and strength but inroads into our mātauranga, and the multi-layered, inter-generational and ever-evolving stories that are part of our cultural landscape. Her work has become an alternate visual rendering of Aotearoa’s history, through the lens of a Māori woman.

Image: Robyn Kahukiwa, Portrait of a Woman, 1986, Private collection, Wellington