Past Exhibitions
If you would like to know more about our past temporary exhibitions, please contact the gallery - thank you.

ANTHONY DAVIES
Observer and Printmaker
9 September - 5 November 2023
Born in Andover, Hampshire, England, Anthony Davies attended the Winchester School of Art and the Royal College of Art, London. He was the recipient of the 'Prix de Rome' (for etching) during his time at the British School at Rome, and academic research school for British artists in Italy ...

JANET DE WAGT
Songs of the Land
3 August - 3 September 2023
In this series Janet has chosen to use guitars and ukuleles as her canvas, utilising the inner spaces of the instrument to introduce a light source. The guitars and ukuleles are a metaphor for the sound she hears in nature and the light illuminates the many environmental issues dear to her heart ...

EASTERN SOUTHLAND EMBROIDERERS' GUILD
Bi-ennial Exhibition
5 - 27 August 2023
August sees the return of the Eastern Southland Embroiderers' Guild bi-ennial exhibition showcasing the work of our local embroiderers. Always popular with visitors, the exhibition bring together both traditional and contemporary embroidery created over the past two years by guild members ...

BRYAN POOLE
New Zealand Native Botanicals
3 June - 30 July 2023
Born in Invercargill, Bryan Poole (1953 to 2022) was a botanical and natural history artist based in the United Kingdom from the early 1980s. His formal training as a botanical artist stemmed from his association with The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew ...

WALL FLOWERS
Works from the Collection
3 June - 30 July 2023
Flowers have inspired artists throughout history, from ancient Roman frescoes to Monet's water lilies. The botanical world has an endless variety of flowers – each with unique colour schemes, shapes and sizes that make them incredibly versatile subject matter for any artist ...

YESTERDAYS' JOURNEYS
Works by Inge and Mark Doesburg
1 April - 28 May 2023
Dunedin printmaker Inge Doesburg was born 1965 in Düsseldorf, Germany. She studied advertising and dressmaking in Germany before immigrating to New Zealand in 1988. Inge holds a Diploma in Fine Arts with Honours and a major in printmaking (1993) from the Dunedin School of Art ...

PHILIP TRUSTTUM
CMT and Other Probs…..
26 November 2022 - 29 January 2023
The exhibition's thematic works address issues very personal to the artist’s immediate family and were completed over the past 3-4 years. “My wife Lee was born with a hereditary genetic condition called Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT for short), that affects the peripheral nervous system, resulting in paralysis to varying degrees ..."

MARILYNN WEBB:
River, Lake and Fiord
24 September - 20 November 2022
This exhibition brings together a selection of works from the Eastern Southland Gallery’s permanent collection, by respected New Zealand printmaker Marilynn Webb (1937 - 2021). Included are works from the Mataura Valley, In Hodges’ Wake and Waitaki Unplugged Series ...

TREVOR MOFFITT:
Paintings 1966 - 2001
24 September - 20 November 2022
Trevor Moffitt (1936 - 2006) is arguably one of the country’s most notable narrative painters. Born in Gore, Moffitt graduated from the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts in 1959. Unlike many of his contemporaries whose work pursued a nationalism based on the landscape ...

RITA ANGUS: New Zealand Modernist /He Ringatoi Hou o Aotearoa
21 May - 17 July 2022
Selected works from Te Papa’s summer exhibition - Rita Angus: New Zealand Modernist | He Ringatoi Hou o Aotearoa - brings together 20 works by one of New Zealand’s most iconic 20th- century artists, Rita Angus (1908–1970) ...

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE: Collaborative Paintings by Euan Macleod and Gregory O'Brien
2 October - 5 December 2021
With Euan Macleod based in Sydney and Gregory O’Brien in Wellington, the works in this exhibition are a continuation of a trans-Tasman conversation which began in 2009 when O’Brien was writing a monograph on Macleod’s art ...

RECENT ACQUISITIONS
7 August - 28 September 2021
The Gallery has been very fortunate to have received a number of gifts to the permanent collection over the past 2-3 years. This exhibition showcases some of those works, as well as a number of purchases made with the support of the wider arts community ...

ELIZABETH THOMSON: Cellular Memory
4 June - 1 August 2021
For over 30 years, Wellington-based sculptor/installation artistElizabeth Thomson has been drawn to areas of scientific knowledge such as botany, micro-biology, oceanography and mathematics. With images and concepts from those fields as her starting point, Thomson’s works take flight ...
Tony Fomison: E ngaro ana i te Pouri - Lost in the Dark
5 March - 30 May 2021
We are very grateful to Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand for the opportunity to present an exhibition of works by Tony Fomison. Having their genesis in the late 1960’s and spanning the early-to-mid 1970’s, these carefully selected paintings represent not only a troubled time in the artist’s life but also an exploration of what it means to be an outsider ...
SUE COOKE: Long Hee Lee - A Songless Land
1 December 2020 - 1 March 2021
In 2015, Whanganui-based landscape artist Sue Cooke, received a year-long grant from the Pollack Krasner Foundation in New York that funded drawing, research and development of proposals for artwork based on the past and current deforestation of New Zealand’s indigenous forests. ...
JIM COOPER: The Cellophane Circus Visits the Royal Suite
1 November 2020 - 7 February 2021
‘The Cellophane Circus Visits the Royal Suite’ brings together a selection of work made over the past 3-4 years in his Port Chalmers studio. Included is a selection of his rag rug works that resemble paintings, as well as ceramic and papier maché animals and figures, and his enormous strings of ceramic beads ....
MUKA YOUTH PRINT EXHIBITION
Saturday 17 October 2020 - One Day Only
On Saturday 17 October the annual Muka Youth Print Exhibition returned to the Gore for ONE DAY ONLY. This children-only event gives young people (aged 5-18) an opportunity to purchase original contemporary art, by well-known artists, in an environment where adults are not permitted.
FROM RITA ANGUS TO DICK FRIZZELL
7 December 2019 - 22 March 2020
Landscapes from the Kelliher Art Trust Collection
Classic Kelliher landscapes by Peter McIntyre and Austen Deans alongside the Trust’s recent acquisitions by some of the best-known artists of the era such as Toss Woollaston, Michael Smither, Dick Frizzell and Stanley Palmer.
TIMELY ADDITIONS
28 September - 1 December 2019
Audrey Baldwin, Daegan Wells, Gaby Montejo, Liv Worsnop, Lonnie Hutchinson,
Nathan Pohio, Rob Hood, Zina Swanson
Examines the role of public art and its impact on place and place-making in post-quake Christchurch. An exhibition in partnership with The Physics Room Contemporary Art Space in Christchurch.
REMEMBERING RODIN
29 June - 22 September 2019
French sculptor Auguste Rodin is one of the world’s most well-known artists, and his work had a profound influence on the development of modern art. Born in 1840, he went on to produce some of the world’s best known and most celebrated sculptures including The Age of Bronze (1876), The Thinker (1880) and The Kiss (1882).
THE WADING BIRDS OF DRYBREAD
16 February - 7 April 2019
12 Months in Central Otago - Recent Works by Gregory O'Brien.
Early last year well known painter, printmaker, poet and writer Gregory O’Brien took up the 2018 Henderson Arts Trust artist-in-residence programme in Alexandra’s elegant Ernst Plischke designed Henderson House ...
SET IN STONE
12 May - 29 July 2018
Lithographs From The Permanent Collection
Lithography literally means to write or draw on stone. Lithographic lime-stones are large, perfectly flat surfaces that artists love to work on. Using a greasy crayon or liquid, an image can be applied to the smooth surface then chemically treated so that the artist’s work is bonded to the stone...
FROM BALTIMORE TO GORE
9 December 2017 - 19 February 2018
Baltimore Artists from the John Money Collection
From Baltimore to Gore brings to light some significant treasures from Money’s 55 years in that city, and tracks the careers of some key artists including: May Wilson, Lowell Nesbitt, Liz Whitney Quisgard and Sally Hopkins.
LARGE SCULPTURES FROM THE COLLECTION:
Don Driver, Peter Nicholls and Scott Eady
14 April – 28 May 2017
This exhibition showcases the large scale works of three sculptors - Don Driver, Peter Nicholls and Scott Eady - from the Gallery’s permanent collection. They are all large in scale but that’s where the similarities end...
STACEY BUTLER: Yarns over the Farm Fence
25 February – 9 April 2017
Yarns over the Farm Fence is a body of work completed by local artist Stacey Butler as part of her Master of Fine Arts. The exhibition is made up of three groups of photographs that together create an agricultural timeline with a sustainability focus.
NIGEL BROWN: All the Jokes about Survival
25 February – 9 April 2017
All the Jokes about Survival is an exhibition of selected paintings from the personal collection of respected and celebrated New Zealand artist Nigel Brown. Over a period of several years these works have been gifted by the artist and his partner Sue McLaughlin to the Eastern Southland Gallery’s permanent collection.
Trevor Moffitt: Paintings 1966 - 2001
17 December 2016 – 19 February 2017
In July 2015 the Gallery was very fortunate to be gifted an extensive collection of paintings by Trevor Moffitt, built up over a number of years, by Enyth Good of Auckland. With paintings beginning with Mackenzie from the mid 1960’s and ending with Hokonui in the mid 2000’s, this exhibition showcases that very generous gift.
NIGEL BUXTON: Willow
13 August – 9 October 2016
Willow features a recently completed series of works based on willow trees situated on a farm in South Canterbury. The exhibition includes drawings done some 30 years ago and more recent works using a collaged photographic montage approach incorporating oil and chalk pastel.
MARY MCFARLANE: Room Temperature
13 August – 9 October 2016
Room Temperature presents a large scale sculptural installation that Mary McFarlane has been developing over a number of years. Wire-wove walls form two rooms containing furniture, objects, and embroideries; all of which have been handmade, altered or collected by the artist.