As part of the upcoming Aotearoa Art Fair, Wall House Party brings together leading contemporary galleries at the forefront of object-based practice to celebrate how we design and adorn domestic spaces as an act of self-expression.
Considering the theme of the enrichment that comes from living with objects — through materials, form, and narrative, and our connections to the artists who create the objects we share our homes with, Masterworks Gallery tells this story through a display of works from Emma Camden, Wendy Fairclough, Shelley Norton, Louise Purvis, and Christine Thacker.
Kurutai Collective presents a series of contemporary artworks with a focus on ceramics crafted by contemporary Māori artists. Kurutai, in te reo Māori, relates to brackish water, which is a mix of waiti fresh water and waitā sea water, where river meets sea.
The artworks on display speak to these collectives coming together through different waters to strengthen tides and to swim together as one strong current in contemporary Māori visual arts.
Auckland-based artist Andrew Rankin’s practice offers a conceptual framework that situates itself somewhere between sculptural assemblage and conceptual photography. An illusionistic space is automatic in the reproduced image, and Andrew enhances this illusion through subtle manipulations of his presentations.
Sculptor Louise Purvis lives in the bush-clad Kauaeranga Valley, near Thames. Her primary mediums are stone and metals, and the forms of her works often relate to organic themes inspired by the ecology of her local environment.
Louise’s works have a simplicity to them, honed and refined over several decades, that belies the complexity of their actual making. This is particularly true of her recent Plant & Paperbags series. Created in small editions, each sculpture consists of a crumpled paper bag cast in bronze using the lost wax method and filled with handcrafted bronze replicas of native plants including harakeke, raupō, and muehlenbeckia.
New Zealand-born, Adelaide Hills-based glass artist Wendy Fairclough has evolved a distinctive visual language, transposing common, domestic objects into glass. Often composed as elegant tableaux, her arrangements draw forth the poetic possibilities of everyday objects.
Her work in glass speaks to our shared humanity through objects, always fuelled by an interest in the commonalities between people, regardless of culture, race, or religious beliefs.
Aotearoa Art Fair, 30 April – 3 May 2026. Purchase your tickets at artfair.co.nz
