Rod Eales has always been attracted to gardens and the flowers within them. Her two acre garden, which she planned and created, has been the inspiration for this series of paintings celebrating the flower in all stages of its life, from bud to full bloom, and the slow process of decline and decay. Rod has always collected, dissected and drawn flowers, either from books, her own garden, friend’s gardens or Botanical gardens ...

Fortune by Auckland-based artist Bev Moon (Cantonese, Taishanese) is a yum cha feast created lovingly from wool. The exhibition is Moon's tribute to her Chinese mother and grandmother who faced great obstacles to settle in New Zealand as refugees during WWII.

The London Years covers the 10-year period (1959-1969) when Bullmore was living in London and seeks to celebrate the largely unknown story of one of our own. The exhibition features a body of work on long term loan to the Invercargill Public Art Gallery from the Marshall family, as well as works from the Eastern Southland Gallery and Invercargill Public Art Gallery collections.

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

A group exhibition exploring the artists’ connections to Southland and celebrating Murihiku, the great Southern Mother, who nurtured their artistic talents and values ...

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 ..." 

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 (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  ...

The Gallery is delighted to welcome back Dunedin artist Ewan McDougall. Born in Wellington, McDougall’s family later moved to Oamaru where he was educated at Waitaki Boys High School and taught art by Colin Wheeler.  ...

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) ...

Curated from the Gallery’s permanent collection, ‘Black’ gathers together works in which colour is largely absent and black predominates.  ...

As the name suggests, ‘gold’ is the principal theme of this exhibition. Interpreted in the broadest sense, ‘Gold’ brings to light works that are either framed in gold or that include gold in their subject or surface treatment ...

New Landscape shows new work from Masters of Fine Arts graduates from the Dunedin School of Art, Robyn Bardas, Miranda Joseph and Sue Pearce ... 

Over the past few years, the Gallery has been fortunate to receive a number of important gifts to the permanent collection from long-time supporters Patricia Bosshard Browne and Kobi Bosshard ... 

Frank Checketts, an Auckland based potter and theatre set designer with strong southern connections, passed away in June last year and left the Eastern Southland Gallery a collection of 51 works by leading New Zealand potters. ... 

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 ... 

This popular biennial presentation features both traditional and contemporary genres, developed over the past two years by members of the Eastern Southland Embroiderers’ Guild ...

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 ...

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 ...

The paintings and drawings of Movement, Stillness, Silence, survey the evolution of an important Southland painter. Johanna Elizabeth Qiao Tong was born (1983) in Gore ...

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 ...

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. ...

‘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 ....

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.

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. 

A selection of drawings by Michael Smither, gifted to the Gallery from the collection of Jim Barr and Mary Barr in Wellington.

Showcases a selection of works donated to the Gallery by significant NZ painter Nigel Brown and his partner Sue McLaughlin including many paintings from when the couple lived at Cosy Nook on the southern coast. 

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.

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 Eastern Southland Gallery has combined with Invercargill Public Art Gallery to present the collaborative exhibition Southland Treasures from the Age of Rodin.

Biennial exhibition from the Eastern Southland Embroiderers’ Guild featuring both traditional and contemporary pieces using a wide variety of techniques.

​A project initiated and developed by The Tapestry Trust of New Zealand to stitch a series of panels depicting the history of Aotearoa New Zealand. 

​Series of paintings based on historic images of colonial women, created during Anita DeSoto’s three-month residency in Riverton, as the Southland Art Foundation’s William Hodges Fellow 2018.

​A selection of Wellington artist Rob McLeod’s large colourful plywood-based paintings gifted by the artist to the permanent collection.

Exhibition by NZ narrative painter Trevor Moffitt focusing on the South and including work from the ‘Gold Miner’, ‘My Father’s Life’, ‘Mackenzie’ and ‘Hokonui Moonshine’ series.

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 ...

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Fiona Van Oyen, Sue Pearce, Robyn Bardas, Miranda Joseph and Hannah Joynt.

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​Group exhibition exploring the landscape and natural world through the eyes of five recent Masters of Fine Arts graduates from the Dunedin School of Art.

Paintings by Janet de Wagt

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​Paintings by Dunedin artist Janet de Wagt capturing the Mataura River and Southland coastline in all their moods.

New Zealand Women Artists from the Collection

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​Works by notable women artists drawn from the permanent collection to mark 125 years of Women’s Suffrage.

​In 1945 Leo White combined his love of photography and flying to establish Whites Aviation, a company that went on to change the way many New Zealanders saw the land in which they lived...

Etching From The Permanent Collection

Etching is a form of intaglio printmaking that dates back to the 16th century. Intaglio printmaking (or gravure) is a process where an image is scored into a metal surface....

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...

Portrait of an Icon - The Crown Lynn Swan

Portrait of an Icon celebrates an iconic feature of New Zealand’s social and cultural heritage, the Crown Lynn swan vase. Crown Lynn is one of New Zealand’s more notable manufacturers. ...

Baltimore Artists from the John Money Collection

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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.

An exploration of the landforms, histories and spiritualties of southern New Zealand, as developed by Marilynn Webb since her arrival as Frances Hodgkins Fellow at the University of Otago in 1974.

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Selected Portraits from the Collection

An exhibition exploring the unique way in which artists see others, as well as the equally fascinating way in which they view and present themselves... 

Dunedin-based artist Nicola Jackson is known for her vivid use of colour, intricate detail, papier-mâché forms and her ongoing exploration of human anatomy.

The role of play takes centre stage in this exhibition of two new series of work by Mike O'Kane...

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This installation brings together a selection of recent work and new pieces created especially for Eastern Southland Gallery...

Dunedin artist Motoko Watanabe presents a collection of woven sculptures. The works on display deconstruct the weaving process by focussing on details of form and by moving beyond function...

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...

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.

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.

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. 

This exhibition brings together a selection of Eion Stevens' shaped paintings covering the period 2005-2016. It is a survey of a 12 year journey through one distinct component of his painting career.

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.

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.