Arcadia is curated by Artfull, the online destination for discovering original art in Aotearoa New Zealand. Arcadia is an IRL expression of Artfull’s mission to make art accessible to all. To demystify the art world.
Here, in the historic Queens Arcade as part of Art in the City, six pop up gallery spaces take art beyond the white cube. Placing art in conversation with culturally and conceptually rich, often unexpected spaces, the works take on extra meaning. Meet the artists, learn about their work, fall in love with it and make it yours. Find out more about each of the exhibitions and artists below.
Arcadia is supported by Heart of the City and Queens Arcade.
Events
Arcadia exhibition opening
Saturday 8 October, 11am – 2pm
To celebrate the opening of Arcadia’s six exhibitions under one historic roof, Queens Arcade is throwing out the welcome mat with complimentary treats and Gin (bFM, Marbecks) on the decks.
- Complimentary special edition drinks at EOS Coffee for the first 60 guests – with a colourful fruit-ade inspired by Arcadia artists Nuala Gregory and Diane Brand and coffees created by resident latte art champion Hoony
- A free art-inspired chocolate for the first 100 guests and free hot chocolate shots throughout the event from Devonport Chocolates – just mention Arcadia at the counter
Late Night Art – Arcadia After Hours
Thursday 13 October, 5pm – 9pm
Indulge your senses at Arcadia After Hours this Late Night Art. Join Artfull artists Rick Allender, Diane Brand, Yeonjae Choi, Tim D., Nuala Gregory, Logan Moffat, Sarah Oostendorp, Gerry Parke, Michelle Reid and Jana Wood at Queens Arcade to celebrate this collaborative project in an evening of festivity, filled with art, music, and refreshments thanks to Hendricks Gin (R18 for service, host responsibility applies.)
Artist talks
For the duration of Arcadia at Queens Arcade, the artists will be present. They welcome you to drop by to say hi and ask questions and purchase the pieces you fall in love with.
Sunday 9 October, 11am, Shop 28, Queens Arcade
Join artist Michelle Reid and Artfull co-curator Alanna O'Riley at shop 28 for a conversational artist talk. Hear what it is that inspires their artwork and learn about their practice and process.
Saturday 15 October, 3pm, Shop 36, Queens Arcade
Join Logan Moffat and Artfull cofounder Jessica Agoston Cleary for a conversational artist talk. This is a special opportunity for you to gain insights into his otherworldly portrait paintings and even ask questions.
Stay tuned for more exciting artist talks to be announced.
Guided tours
Click here to find out more about free guided tours of Arcadia led by art historian Karen Blennerhassett.
Exhibitions
Confetti: Works on Paper - group show and Artfull HQ
Shop 17-19
Confetti: Works on Paper is a group show curated by Artfull and dedicated to paper-based art. Presenting work by a range of Artfull artists - Amanda Billing, Deborah Crowe, Elliot Collins, John Pusateri, Mo Stewart and Virginia Woods-Jack - this show celebrates the possibilities of paper. Paper offers the artist a surface unlike any other. Different papers have different textures and absorb or disperse paint or ink, pastel or pencil in a myriad of different ways. Where a work on canvas or linen can be built up and reworked, artists who work on paper are at once assured of their own skill, and also open to the possibility that what results may not quite be what they expected. Paper can be unpredictable, and that is what makes these works truly special.
6x6 - Tim D.
Shop 21
6x6 is a presentation of six photographs shot in Rolleiflex 6x6 format by Tāmaki Makaurau photographer Tim D. Tim D. is a documentary photographer whose work comprises largely of documenting the spaces, places, and people in his life. His photographs traverse between the universal and deeply personal, born of his lived experiences in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Orbit - Sarah Oostendorp and Yeonjae Choi
Shop 26
Orbit is a collaborative project of experimental works by Tāmaki Makaurau based artists Yeonjae Choi and Sarah Oostendorp. A personal exploration into the process of making art, using circular forms through sculpture and drawing, that talks about our place within the round world. Yeonjae and Sarah shares similar ideas in their process of making, their preoccupation for the circular form and the outcome of chance, as to let the art choose its own fate. Combining a sculptural practice with a two dimensional practice presents new challenges and new pathways for ideas to grow for both artists.
Images clockwise from left: Deborah Crowe, Echo for Confetti: Works on Paper; Tim D 6x6; Orbit.
Further below: Michelle Reid, Thought Gardens for Lurky Spaces; Nuala Gregory, Behind this (ir)regularity for POP; Logan Moffat, Through the Mist for Reality Bytes.
Lurky Spaces - Michelle Reid and Jana Wood
Shop 28
Utilising a variety of explorative mediums, two Auckland artists gently respond to the persistent nature of environmental decline from intermingling perspectives.
Drawing parallels between the state of modern environmentalism and an unoccupied Queens Arcade shopfront lying in wait, Lurky Spaces is a place for quiet reflection on disparate narratives, a grounding space for hopeful realisation.
The Artists are in residence. Artist talk: Sunday 9 October, 11am.
POP - Rick Allender, Diane Brand and Nuala Gregory
Shop 32
POP brings together the work of Rick Allender, Diane Brand, and Nuala Gregory in a burst of bright colour and bold form. These three Tāmaki Makaurau based artists have established mixed media practices that bring material and aesthetic to the fore. Guided by a sophisticated understanding of compositional logic, these artists play with the possibilities of their mediums, cutting and pasting and molding and shaping until it all becomes a vivid haze.
Reality Bytes - Logan Moffat and Gerry Parke
Shop 36
Reality Bytes is a presentation of work by Logan Moffat and Gerry Parke, two painters tackling corporeality in the digital age. Moffat and Parke pull imagery from virtual spaces, mining the darker recesses of the web for subjects to reinterpret with the brush. Both painters call into question how we present and perform identity with exuberance, blurring classical figurativism with emblems of contemporaneity like graffiti, high fashion, and pop culture.
Tāmaki Makaurau artist Logan Moffat will be present for the duration of Arcadia at Queens Arcade. Moffat welcomes you to drop in to shop 36 to say hi.
Part of Art in the City.
Get $2 parking per hour to a maximum of $15 on evenings and weekends at the Downtown car park. Find out more.
Kids ride free on public transport on weekends and public holidays. Find out more.