Oceania

Offering a journey into the soul of the Pacific, Oceania brings together iconic works of art by Māori, Pacific and Pākehā artists from recent decades alongside textiles and carvings from earlier times.

The exhibition encompasses visions of earthly paradise as well as the darker realities of colonial history and nuclear testing. In paintings, photographs, carvings, jewellery, and sculpture, visitors will encounter ancestors and gods as well as contemporary peoples.

Oceania asserts the significance of the Pacific, not only as a place of great navigators and explorers, but also of imaginative artists. It offers an unprecedented view of the many ways in which Oceanic Art–one of the great traditions in world art–has been revisited and revitalised by recent generations of artists.

6 August – 6 November

Includes work by Sofia Tekela-Smith, Niki Hastings-McFall, Shigeyuki Kihara, Greg Semu, John Pule, Edith Amituanai, Ani O’Neill, Chris Charteris

Te Papa and the City Gallery, Wellington