Tāmaki Makaurau Day One: City Centre
View from Kitchener Street of the redeveloped Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Art Gallery, 2011
To launch Art Guides World, we have designed gallery-heavy art guides to Tāmaki Makaurau which can be utilised any time of the year – although we do suggest checking gallery websites as galleries can close between exhibitions.
While Art Fairs stimulate activity and bring into sharp focus the market reality most artists and galleries rely on, it's the galleries and art spaces themselves provide spaces for the community to grow and prosper. There would be no art fairs without galleries, there would be no galleries without artists!
Regardless of being commercial or institutional in nature, art spaces of all kinds create opportunities for artists, develop and nurture their practice, and create an environment for the wider community of curious participants to gather and exchange ideas. Support the galleries: support the artists. Here are our suggestions for day one:
Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Art Gallery in the center of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland is an obvious starting point. The public gallery officially opened on 17 February 1888 and was extensively renovated over six years, reopening in 2011 with impressive contemporary interventions creating a range of exhibition spaces. Our recommended exhibitions to see during Aotearoa Art Fair 2025 are Mark Adams: A Survey | He Kohinga Whakaahua; Gothic Returns: Fuseli to Fomison; and The Robertson Gift: Paths through Modernity. Arrive when they open at 10am to make the most of your day and beat the crowds.
Across the road you’ll find Gow Langsford Gallery, Fingers Contemporary Jewellery, and the charming cafe Kompass Coffee, if the weather is nice you can sit outside and admire the Toi o Tāmaki as it meets the edge of Albert Park, with impressive Pohutukawa trees lining Kitchener Street.
From Kitchener Street there are fountain steps down to Lorne Street which are adorned with the Women's Suffrage Mural by Jan Morrison and Claudia Pond Eyley, turn right onto Lorne Street to find more public sculpture: Byword by Mary-Louise Browne. Follow Lorne Street down to High Street to find Justice by Lisa Reihana on the O’Connell St facade of the Ellen Melville Center, from which Gus Fisher Gallery is a five minute walk, from which Sumer and Coastal Signs contemporary commercial galleries are less than 10 minutes walk.
In the area you can see more of Mark Adams’ artwork at Onslow, a fine dining restaurant by Michelin starred chef Josh Emett, for something late and casual nearer the theatres visit The Cave Yakitori Bar – known to locals as Tanuki’s Cave, or for pre-or-post Fair cuisine visit Ahi, overlooking the waterfront in Commercial Bay.
Thursday 1 May is opening night at Aotearoa Art Fair 2025 from 5pm at the Viaduct Events Center, when the fair isn’t on we suggest you check out what’s happening at The Civic – a grand Taj Mahal inspired arts theatre established in 1929, Auckland Town Hall for the city’s philharmonia, or Q Theatre, for contemporary performance. May Day also marks the first day of Ngā Ao E Rua – Two Worlds, Marlon Williams’ debut feature documentary by Ursula Grace Williams in cinemas. During the fair you can get tickets for Mozart’s Jupiter Speed is Emotional, a high voltage comedic solo performance featuring costume and set design by Steven Junil Park 박준일, who is also presenting at the Aotearoa Art Fair with Public Record, who feature in Day Two of the Tāmaki Makaurau Art Itinerary.
Handy links from this article:
Tāmaki Makaurau Art Itinerary by Art Guides World on Google Maps
