Art Galleries in Auckland
Auckland offers a wide range of art galleries to suit every taste, style and budget. You’re spoilt for choice with over 100 art galleries within the greater Auckland metropolitan area. This reflects the huge diversity of the city’s culture, offering artists ranging from those who focus on traditional painting to those who produce art that challenges or subverts the viewers’ assumptions and preconceptions. Then there are those who simply want to create beautiful images.
If you’re not familiar with the different types of art galleries, here’s an easy way to identify them. Why not try them all?
Auckland Public Art Galleries
Your starting point. The Auckland Art Gallery (Toi o Tāmaki) is the city’s largest and most prominent art gallery. Located in Kitchener Street in the heart of Auckland City and backing onto Albert Park, the gallery houses one of the most extensive collections of national and international art in New Zealand and regularly hosts travelling international exhibitions. It holds 16,000 works in its permanent collection, offering the visitor an inspiring art experience with four floors of exhibitions, and many centuries of art in one of Auckland’s most iconic buildings. The artists represented have been judged by the gallery’s curators as the best of the best in their genre. Art in public galleries is not for sale. https://www.aucklandartgallery.com
Commercial Dealer Galleries
Leading Auckland commercial art galleries include:
Gow Langsford
Located in Lorne Street and with a second gallery on the corner of Kitchener and Wellesley Streets, this Auckland art gallery represents top local and international artists. It is known particularly for its large-scale abstract paintings. Gow Langsford’s stable of high-profile artists includes Karl Maughan, Max Gimblett, Dale Frank, Reuben Patterson, Judy Miller and Sarah Hughes. https://www.gowlangsfordgallery.co.nz
Some other highly regarded Auckland commercial art dealer galleries include:
Stark White Gallery: 510 Karangahape Road, Newton, Auckland. www.starkwhite.co.nz
Orexart Gallery: Level 1/15 Putiki Street, Arch Hill, Auckland.
orexart.co.nz
White Space Art Gallery: 12 Crummer Road, Grey Lynn, Auckland. www.whitespace.co.nz
Sanderson Art Gallery: Osborne Lane, 2 Kent Street, Newmarket, Auckland.
www.sanderson.co.nz
Art hire and purchase galleries
Leading the field is Auckland’s Mobile Art Gallery at 23 Edwin St, Mt Eden (on the CBD fringe). Don’t be fooled by its name, this is a brick-and-mortar gallery where you’ll receive a free no-obligation consultation to assist you in buying or renting art which will perfectly complement your office or home.
The gallery displays one of the country’s largest collections available for sale or hire to the public, all under one roof. Mobile Art Gallery represents an ever-changing stable of 100 artists, which allows the gallery to constantly source and display new works in real-time. The diversity of artwork means accessibility and affordability for new collectors.
Mobile Art Gallery provides many options for the customer to have confidence in their buying decision, including the gallery’s own art app that enables you to take a photo of your own wall space or use a pre-set wall and then superimpose a selected artwork from the gallery onto that wall.
Auckland Pop-up Galleries
Exactly as their name implies, pop-up galleries are temporary, often taking advantage of empty shop space to provide public exposure for an artist who is not currently represented by a commercial gallery. This exhibiting option is increasingly being used by young and emerging artists as a way of getting their work into the marketplace at a reasonable price. This is a great way to discover new young upcoming Auckland artists before they become hot and unaffordable. How do you find them? Look in your suburban newspaper, research online, follow young artists you like on Facebook or Instagram and keep your eyes peeled for street posters advertising Auckland pop-up art exhibitions.
Artist-run Auckland Galleries
As with pop-up galleries, Auckland artist-run galleries or artist collectives are a way for artists to collaborate to provide art to the public that can be more affordable than art sold by commercial art galleries. A particularly good example of an established quality Auckland artists’ collective is Space Art Gallery, a collective of seven Waiheke Island artists showing their work at 114 Oceanview Rd, Oneroa, Waiheke Island. The gallery features original paintings, indoor and outdoor sculptures, bronzes, drawings and ceramics.
Non-profit Auckland Art Galleries
Located at Level 1, 300 Karangahape Road, Auckland Central, ArtSpace, is a prime example of a non-commercial and non-collector gallery. It offers new artwork, often very conceptual, by very cutting-edge artists. The gallery receives major public funding from Creative New Zealand. Artspace is dedicated to commissioning and presenting new ideas in art and culture, as well as fostering critical debate. www.artspace.org.nz
Auckland Council-Funded Community Art Galleries
Here is a small selection of the many Auckland community art galleries that are funded and supported by the Auckland Council across the Auckland region.
The Depot Artspace: 28 Clarence Street, Devonport, Auckland. www.depotartspace.co.nz
Lake House Arts Centre: Fred Thomas Drive, Takapuna, Auckland. www.lakehousearts.org.nz
Mairangi Arts Centre: 20 Hastings Road, Mairangi Bay, Auckland. www.mairangiarts.co.nz
Northart: Norman King Square, Ernie Mays Street, Northcote Shopping Centre, North Shore, Auckland. www.northart.co.nz
Māngere Arts Centre / Ngā Tohu o Uenuku: Corner Orly Avenue and Bader Drive,
Mangere Town Centre, Auckland, tel: 09262 5789.
Uxbridge Arts Centre: 35 Uxbridge Road, Howick, Auckland. www.uxbridge.co.nz
Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts: 13 Reeves Rd, Pakuranga, Auckland. www.tetuhi.org.nz
Corban Estate Arts Centre: 426 Great North Road, Auckland. www.ceac.org.nz
Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery: 420 Titirangi Road, Auckland. www.teuru.org.nz
Studio One Toi Toi Tū (Formerly Artstation): 1 Ponsonby Road, Ponsonby, Auckland. www.studioone.org.nz
Written by Sue Reidy