The Lightship

The Lightship A new site for contemporary art at Ports of Auckland, Tāmaki Makaurau. The Lightship is proudly initiated by .

The Lightship is delighted to present Kalisolaite 'Uhila's new work "Ko au eni" meaning "here I am." Kalisolaite has set...
05/05/2026

The Lightship is delighted to present Kalisolaite 'Uhila's new work "Ko au eni" meaning "here I am." Kalisolaite has set the phrase in the red and white of the Tongan flag across the face of The Lightship. It is the answer one gives in Tongan when called, a signal of presence and readiness to serve, familiar from Tongan hymns and from everyday speech.

📰 https://www.thelightship.co.nz/

📍 Quay Street at Port of Auckland

The Lightship is delighted to present Jack B Hadley's 'Colour Function 3:30.' In this new work, the display surface is b...
03/03/2026

The Lightship is delighted to present Jack B Hadley's 'Colour Function 3:30.' In this new work, the display surface is broken down into discrete, square chunks of colour, each of which correlates to part of the physical construction of the grid itself. Rather than projecting a floating, discrete image “onto” the building, Hadley foregrounds the underlying structure, making the viewer “see” the building in its entirety. Read more: https://www.thelightship.co.nz/

We are pleased to present John Ward Knox's 'Fathom, Furlong, League,' presenting a single, simple scene, lit and featuri...
16/01/2026

We are pleased to present John Ward Knox's 'Fathom, Furlong, League,' presenting a single, simple scene, lit and featuring an incandescent horizon. The work's content emerges quietly through incidental detail. A lamp reflects in the glowing screen of a laptop playing a nature documentary, its light waxing and waning with the subject’s breath. It is an invitation to slowness.

Born 1984, Auckland - John Ward Knox is a New Zealand artist known for his conceptually rich and delicately executed works that blur the boundaries between painting and sculpture. A graduate of Elam School of Fine Arts, Knox creates finely detailed black oil paintings on silk, often layered and suspended to reveal shifting imagery and spatial depth.

Read more 👀 https://www.thelightship.co.nz/
Visit 👣 The Lightship, Quay St, Auckland

We are pleased to present 'I Have No Body and I Must Move', a newly commissioned work by Jess Johnson and Simon Ward, il...
03/12/2025

We are pleased to present 'I Have No Body and I Must Move', a newly commissioned work by Jess Johnson and Simon Ward, illuminating The Lightship from until January 2026.

In this animated installation, Johnson and Ward unfold a ritualised, side-scrolling world where faceless figures navigate a gravity-defying architecture. Saturated patterns, symbolic structures and game-like movement converge in a choreography that feels at once ancient and speculative.

The duo — New Zealand–born and Melbourne/New York–based — are known for their immersive practice bridging hand-drawn cosmologies, animation and virtual reality. Their work continues to expand the possibilities of narrative, world-building and technological play within contemporary art.

🔗 Learn more here: https://www.thelightship.co.nz/
📍 The Lightship, Quay Street

Melbourne-based artist Esther Stewart brings her bold, geometric practice to The Lightship with a new site-specific comm...
19/09/2025

Melbourne-based artist Esther Stewart brings her bold, geometric practice to The Lightship with a new site-specific commission.

In Untitled, Stewart reimagines the 110-metre lightwall as a curtain in perpetual motion — looping, rotating, and unfurling with the rhythm of a carnival ride. The work gestures to the port’s history as the site of a theme park, while transforming digital architecture into spectacle. At once playful and architectural, the piece invites viewers to consider how rhythm, colour, and form can animate public space.

Known for her striking abstractions and her collaborations across art, architecture, and design, Stewart has exhibited widely in Australia, with works held in major collections including the National Gallery of Victoria. In 2016 she was awarded the Sir John Sulman Prize, underscoring her standing as one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists.

See Untitled lighting up Quay Street from 1 September – 26 October 2025.

We're excited to introduce the latest piece exhibiting on The Lightship, titled 'White Collar Eclipse,' by artist, Oscar...
17/02/2025

We're excited to introduce the latest piece exhibiting on The Lightship, titled 'White Collar Eclipse,' by artist, Oscar Perry.

In Oscar Perry’s new work for The Lightship, poetic precision is merged with the evocative glow of neon-like typography, creating a layered meditation on time, resilience, and transformation. The phrases, suspended between personal reflection and collective memory, recall Perry’s practice as a poet, where fragmented narratives unfold with humor and gravity.

The commissioned site-specific artwork which will be displayed on The Lightship from dusk until dawn every night until 23 March, 2025.

You can learn more about his journey through the world of art here; www.thelightship.co.nz

Introducing the latest piece exhibiting on The Lightship, titled ‘Slow Fever’, by artist Nicola Farquhar.In Nicola's new...
03/09/2024

Introducing the latest piece exhibiting on The Lightship, titled ‘Slow Fever’, by artist Nicola Farquhar.

In Nicola's new work for The Lightship, Slow Fever, scrolling passages from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein novel, in which the young Victor recounts the near-madness of his creative fervour, are accompanied by a cheerily rotating modernist colour wheel.

Nicola is currently based in Auckland and is a painter that works primarily in oil on linen. Her paintings often use rich and vibrant colours and she explores traditional portraiture through experimentation with colour, space, and science fiction elements.

‘Slow Fever’ will be live on The Lightship from dusk till dawn until 27 November 2024.

Learn more here: https://www.thelightship.co.nz/

Here's a look back at our Pride Month tribute back in February of this year 🌈 The Lightship was the perfect canvas to ce...
09/08/2024

Here's a look back at our Pride Month tribute back in February of this year 🌈

The Lightship was the perfect canvas to celebrate and uplift the rainbow community at the heart of Auckland city.

09/08/2024

Thank you to everyone who came and checked out Clinton Watkin’s piece for The Lightship, 'Frequency Colour'.

Our next artist to display is Nicola Farquhar, whose work will be live from 16 August until 27 November, 2024.

You can learn more about our recent artists here: www.thelightship.co.nz.

Introducing the latest piece exhibiting on The Lightship, titled ‘Frequency Colour’, by artist Clinton Watkins.In Clinto...
28/05/2024

Introducing the latest piece exhibiting on The Lightship, titled ‘Frequency Colour’, by artist Clinton Watkins.

In Clinton Watkins’ Frequency Colour, bands of coloured light, patterns and undulating swathes of seemingly-random visual noise pass over the screen like capricious, technological weather.

These visuals were generated emergently by feeding an experimental electronic soundtrack into a bespoke analogue video hardware setup, lending a visual form to its spectral hums and auditory fuzz. This machine synaesthesia holds a crooked mirror to the way the human mind interprets the arbitrary sense data of the phenomenal world to stake a claim of meaning and coherence.

Watkins is Programme Director at AUT’s School of Future Environments, works across audio visual installation and experimental music and has been producing, exhibiting and performing his work for over 20 years throughout New Zealand, Australia, Europe, Asia and the United States.

Clinton Watkin's work will be live from dusk until dawn every night on Quay Street until 9 August, 2024.

You can learn more here: www.thelightship.co.nz.

Address

Bledisloe Wharf, Ports Of Auckland
Auckland
1010

Opening Hours

Monday 7:30pm - 6am
Tuesday 7:30pm - 6am
Wednesday 7:30pm - 6am
Friday 7:30pm - 6am
Saturday 7:30pm - 6am
Sunday 7:30pm - 6am

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