City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi have announced that they will return to Te Ngākau Civic Square next October 2026 with a major new exhibition from, who they describe, as "one of the most significant artists of the 21st century": Cornelia Parker.
Beyond a Two Rooms residency in Auckland in 2010, it’s fair to say British artist Cornelia Parker is not well known in New Zealand. But it’s a different story in the UK. Parker is known for doing surprising things with common objects. Her large-scale, immersive installations see objects exploded, crushed, and suspended in a world upended and remade anew.
Perhaps most famously: a work that wowed me at the Tate in London once, ‘Cold Dark Matter’. It features the 360 degree suspended, exploded fragments of the artist’s garden shed, lit by a single domestic lightbulb at its centre.
In Aotearoa this week to prepare is Dr Andrea Schlieker. Andrea has 35 years of experience as a curator. She was recently Director of Exhibitions and Displays at Tate Britain for almost seven years, and previously director at one of the world’s best known commercial contemporary galleries White Cube London. Prior to that she conceived the Folkestone Triennial, the UK’s largest exhibition of newly commissioned public art. Andrea is curating the show together with City Gallery’s Aaron Lister and joins Culture 101.
