Watch: Matthew McIntyre-Wilson, Māori artist

Hīnaki are skilfully made forms used as eel traps. They are baited and then placed in a river’s current, or weighted down on the riverbed where the eels enter the inverted openings and can’t escape. Wellington artist Matthew McIntyre-Wilson talks to Mātauranga Māori Curator Isaac Te Awa about learning from the hīnaki in our collection.

Watch: Matt Pine, Māori artist

This video is the last recording made with senior Māori artist Matt Pine a few months before his death in 2021.

Watch: Dane Mitchell talks about ‘Iris, Iris, Iris’

Artist Dane Mitchell explains the role of the intriguing elements in his installation ‘Iris, Iris, Iris’.

Immersive stories: Rita Angus paintings on Google Arts and Culture

Immerse yourself in ten stories about Rita Angus and some of her paintings from our collection on Google Arts and Culture. Learn about her life and thoughts while she was painting in locations around Aotearoa New Zealand.

A Painter’s Journey: Rita Angus’s Central Otago

This film celebrates Rita Angus’s artistic practice – diving into her painting Central Otago (1953–56/1969).

Watch: Robin White – The making of ‘That Vase’

Watch Dame Robin White discussing making ‘That Vase’, a masi (Fijian tapa) with her collaborator Tamari Cabeikanacea, on location in Lautoka Fiji.

Watch: Rita by Quentin Angus

Quentin Angus is a composer based in New York, and the great-nephew of celebrated painter Rita Angus. Watch and listen to a performance of Quentin’s composition, Rita, inspired by the artist’s life, values, and her outstanding and diverse body of work.

Studio portrait photography in Aotearoa New Zealand

Studio portraits taken in a professional photographer’s studio – often making use of backdrops or props – were for formal, posed portraits, as well as informal, candid photographs of people, and sometimes their pets.

Paris Collage Collective Surrealist Dreams showcase

Enter other realms through a selection of highlights from the Paris Collage Collective Surrealist Dreams collage challenge.

How to make a dadaist poem

Is of a fish! Have fun with words: follow these instructions to create your own dadaist poem, using things you are likely to have at home.

‘Finales represent an end, and as such tend to be celebratory in tone’ – Nike Savvas on ‘Finale: Bouquet’

Nike Savvas talks to Curator Contemporary Art Nina Tonga about her work, Finale: Bouquet, on display in Toi Art until Jan 2020.

All About “Eve”: Rodin’s masterpiece

Hear the story of Auguste Rodin’s “Eve”, and the conservation work that went into making her ready for display, to tour New Zealand in 2019.

Art and wellbeing with Tiffany Singh, Ella Brewer, Catherine Spence, and Martin Awa Clarke Langdon

Panellists from science, health, education, and arts backgrounds explore how the relationship between the arts and health can offer diverse and dynamic settings for expressive restorative, educational, and therapeutic benefits.

A child’s interpretation of Frank Craig’s ‘Goblin market’

What does a child see when they look closely at Frank Craig’s ‘Goblin market’?

“The themes in his work always have a place in society”: Wellington High School’s Aroha Millar on Tony Fomison

“The themes in his work always have a place in society – especially today where so many people are outcasts from their own countries.”

“There is nowhere to go if something’s inside of you”: Wellington High School’s Elijah Neilson on Tony Fomison

“I think much of what he paints is an expression of feelings too big for your body. He makes these things that impress upon you from the outside. That can feel better than something emerging from the inside, because there is nowhere to go if something’s inside of you.”

“I really enjoy the way that they make me think”: Wellington High School’s Rose Wallington on Tony Fomison

“I still kinda hate the way that they look, but I really enjoy the way that they make me think.”

Dark desires: Female sexuality in art

What does female sexuality look like in art? Here, it looks like monsters, mermaids, and minotaurs…

Watch: Tony Fomison at work

See rare footage of Tony Fomison at work, captured on glorious Super 8 by New Zealand experimental film-maker Martin Rumsby.

How to design an exhibition for teens? Co-create it with them

‘Tony Fomison: Lost in the Dark’ is co-created with students from Wellington High School, which involved working together across a number of creative sessions. Here, Experience Designer Chloe Johnston channels her inner teen.

On the necessity for architecture: The manifesto of the Architecture Group

Read the Group Architects published manifesto reproduced here.

Children’s Guide to Lisa Walker

How does a child view the jewellery of Lisa Walker?

The secrets found on the backs of paintings

Accompanying the portrait wall in ‘Tūrangawaewae: Art and New Zealand’ are digital interactives that allow you to dive deeper into the conservation efforts that prepared the paintings for exhibition, and reveal hidden histories.

Behind the scenes of Toi Art under construction

Take a peek at how the galleries were built.

Stories behind the portraits – in New Zealand Sign Language

Curator Historical New Zealand Art Rebecca Rice and Curator Mātauranga Māori Matariki Williams tell NZSL Presenter Theresa Cooper about four of the artworks on the portrait wall in Tūrangawaewae: Art and New Zealand.

Watch: How to sign art words

New Zealand Sign Language Presenter Theresa Cooper signs some helpful words to know when you’re talking about art.

‘I’ve never seen the gallery like this before’: Experiencing Toi Art through dance

Transfixed by BodyCartography Project’s ‘Walk with me’ tour of Toi Art, Head of Exhibition Renewal Frith Williams wrote down her thoughts in the middle of the night, “so I could remember it later.” Here’s what she wrote.

Lisa Walker, New Zealand’s jeweller provocateur

It’s 30 years since Lisa Walker set off on her journey in jewellery. Te Papa marks this achievement with the survey exhibition Lisa Walker: I want to go to my bedroom but I can’t be bothered.

‘A mix of control and accident’ – Helen Calder in her own words

Watch: Ngā Tai Whakarongorua | Encounters timelapse

This portrait wall forms part of the Toi Art exhibition ‘Tūrangawaewae: Art & New Zealand’, which spans historical portraiture to contemporary practice, with art works that inspire and provoke, question and console.

Space, body, and movement: An interview with BodyCartography Project’s Olive Bieringa

“There’s a long tradition of dance in the museum, but I think in terms of dance history and in this larger critical discourse around art history, dance has not been a part of that conversation.”

Lisa Walker, a career in pictures

Lisa Walker has always questioned what jewellery can mean and be. Trace the career of this important New Zealand contemporary artist.

Art I’m Into: Nina Tonga, Curator Pacific Art

“When installed and backlit, the work casts thousands of shadows that envelop the viewer.”

Art I’m Into: Charlotte Davy, Head of Art

“When I first unpacked this work from its travelling crate an uncontrollable shiver went up my spine.”

Art I’m Into: Justine Olsen, Curator Decorative Art and Design

“In an ideal world I would wear this necklace to a party.”

The photographs of Marti Friedlander (1928–2016)

Friedlander was particularly renowned for her portraits of artists in the 1960s and 1970s, and for her images of the last Māori women to have received the chin moko in a customary manner.

Is LEGO art?

Art curator Mark Stocker interviews LEGO professional Ryan McNaught. They discuss the contentious subject of whether LEGO can be seen as art.

Five things you never knew about Rodin

Art curator Mark Stocker highlights five fascinating facts you probably didn’t know about the great French sculptor Auguste Rodin.

Listen: Rodin – France’s Greatest Sculptor

Dr Mark Stocker's lecture explores Rodin's slow – even painful – rise to fame, the controversies he sparked, and some of his most renowned works, including The Thinker and The Kiss.

Audio and video about New Zealand painter Rita Angus

The life, work, and relationships of Rita Angus.

Standing on the shoulders of giants: Megan Dunn interviews Andrew McLeod

‘People don’t always know how to respond to art, they don’t know if they have to read the text or not.’

Watch: Interviews with four New Zealand jewellers

Jewellers Lisa Walker, John Edgar, Warwick Freeman, and Alan Preston discuss their work and inspiration.

‘It’s before meaning’: Bill Culbert on ‘VOID’

Curator Sarah Farrar talks with Bill Culbert about his work VOID, 2006, made in collaboration with the late artist Ralph Hotere, and commissioned for Te Papa.

Watch: Bill Culbert installing 'Daylight flotsam Venice' (2013) and 'Drop' (2013)

Artist Bill Culbert created 'Daylight flotsam Venice' (2013) and 'Drop' (2013) as part of his exhibition at the Venice Biennale, where he represented New Zealand in 2013. Here, he installs the work for their first exhibition in New Zealand at Te Papa.

Lisa Reihana: Wog Features

In in Pursuit of Venus [infected], Lisa Reihana uses costume carefully to construct the encounters between European and Pacific cultures. She has been exploring how costume creates character throughout her artistic career. One of the earliest examples is Wog Features (1990). Watch an excerpt here.

Eric Lee-Johnson's night sky photography

New Zealand artist and photographer Eric Lee-Johnson used light in interesting ways in his photography. Here is a selection of images he created in the 1950s.

The significance of the Dufour wallpaper

Art curator Rebecca Rice discusses the importance of the panoramic French wallpaper 'Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique' in the context of both 'Lisa Reihana: Emissaries' and James Cook’s voyages.

Gretchen Albrecht on her work ‘In a shower of gold’

Auckland-based painter Gretchen Albrecht talks about the process of creating her work ‘In a shower of gold’ (2011), and about how the history of her own work sustains her now.

TEAL Posters – Air New Zealand’s Early Days

A vibrant collection of travel posters designed by Arthur Thompson in the 1950s for TEAL, the forerunner of Air New Zealand.

Kids’ audio guide: Tell Me a Picture

Te Papa’s kids’ audio guide, Tell Me a Picture, was made by children for children. But kids aren’t the only ones who enjoy the fascinating, funny, and poignant perspectives it offers.

Watch: Designing wedding garments for 'Unveiled: 200 Years of Wedding Fashion'

Watch interviews with New Zealand designers including Francis Hooper, Denise L’Estrange-Corbet, and Benny Castles, whose designs were exhibited in 'Unveiled: 200 Years of Wedding Fashion' during the summer of 2011–2012.

Watch: Walk, a response to Colin McCahon

Highlights from Riki Gooch and the Sound Institute performing a sonic journey past the 14 ‘stations’ in Colin McCahon’s sweeping multi-canvas work 'Walk (Series C)'.