City Gallery Wellington

31/08/2026

Sew yourself a slice.

Inspired by her work in Unsettling Nairn Street, artist Erica van Zon invites you to create a soft fabric pizza in this hands-on workshop.

Choose your toppings, get creative, and take home your very own pizza creation.

🧵 No stitching experience required. Ages 6+.
📅 Saturday 19 September, 10.30am
📍 Nairn Street Cottage

Book now: https://citygallery.org.nz/event/make-a-slice-of-nice/

28/08/2026

Following the recent passing of renowned artist Yayoi Kusama, we thought we'd share some images from the arrival of her exhibition 'Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years' at City Gallery Wellington.

The exhibition’s title reflected Kusama’s enduring use of mirrors and paintings, prints, sculptures, installations, and films. The exhibition offered visitors an opportunity to experience the immersive and thought-provoking works that made her one of the most influential artists of her generation. Do you remember visiting the exhibit?

28/08/2026

Common Material, the inaugural Wellington Biennial, has been named a finalist in the 2026 BEST Awards in four* categories

• Emerging Value (New Initiative)
• Exhibition & Temporary Structures
• Social Good
• Retail Environments / Inner Workings - modeled after SLUG POP UP SHOP Up by JPalm

Held in the Gallery over one weekend in June, the project brought together designers, makers, and audiences to celebrate the creative energy of Pōneke Wellington through an innovative, near-circular spatial design.

Congratulations Jessie Wong, Charlotte Davy, Emma Ng, Kieren Wells, Jono Coates, Kate Glasson, Seb McLachlan, Johannes Bay, YU MEI, JPALM, Kowtow, twenty-seven names, Russell Kleyn, Jean Thoral, Eliza Blamey and to everyone who played a part.

*Corrections to our newsletter sent 27 August 2026

27/08/2026

Remembering Yayoi Kusama.

"She really touched Wellingtonian's and New Zealander's hearts" - Charlotte Davy, Director of City Gallery Wellington

Davy, spoke to Emile Donovan on RNZ Nights, about when Kusama came to Wellington, with her exhibition at the Gallery in 2009, and the impact and legacy she has left.

Listen to the full interview via the link below.

Renowned Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama has passed away aged 97. We take a look back at the Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years exhibition.

27/07/2026

Join author Richard Shaw at Nairn Street Cottage for a conversation about his latest book, The Good Settler: Essays from Other People’s Lands, as part of the opening day of Unsettling Nairn Street.

Richard will be joined by exhibition co-curator, Emma Ng, for a conversation exploring the ideas behind his work, the responses it has generated, and the complex question: what does it mean to be "a good settler"?

Saturday 1 August, 1pm
Nairn Street Cottage (Visitor Centre)
Free entry - please note space is limited

24/07/2026

Join us for an artists’ talk celebrating the opening of Unsettling Nairn Street. Hear artists Heidi Brickell, Paula Collier, Riki Pirihi, George Turner, Daniel Unverricht and Erica van Zon, discuss their approaches to the cottage’s architecture, histories and material traces, and how they have responded to this unique site and kaupapa.

Saturday 1 August, 11am
Nairn Street Cottage (Visitor Centre)
Free entry - please note space is limited

25/06/2026

🥁 Drum roll please...

Congratulations Sean Kerr, the first artist selected for our Sculpture Terrace Commission.

Alive with rhythm, sound and language, Kerr's neon art work is a new beat for the city. Kerr grew up in Wellington and recalls spending hours in the reading room of City Gallery Wellington back when it was still a public library.

Kerr says, "I remember lingering among books, stumbling over words, and being drawn less to text than to images. At the same time, I was learning, not very successfully, to play the side drum, while my father was in the Post Office Pipe Band. The domestic soundscape of that period—breath, rhythm, repetition, practice—sits directly behind the sculpture."

Visible from the street, this new landmark will light up Pōneke when it arrives in April 2027.

Ngā mihi to Wellington City Council Public Art Fund and the Stout Trust for their support.

Tak Bum Tss Dum Tss Tak Psh Tss Tak Dum Tak Bum Tss Tak Tak Dum Tak Bum Tss Tak Psh Tss Dum Psh🥁

20/06/2026

Ngā mihi nui to Wellington City Council for keeping our kaupapa moving out in the city while we’ve been away from home.​

​In 2025, Wesley John Fourie’s HYPERBALLAD took over the Courtenay Place Lightboxes — remixing the myth of Narcissus through internet culture and pop. ​
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We look forward to having this energy alive in our building when we reopen in October.