Toi Art
Discover our world of art, featuring new, exciting commissions alongside the national art collection.
Guide to Toi Art in New Zealand Sign Language
Wheelchair accessible
Wharepaku | toilets – including all gender, accessible
Parents’ room
Portable gallery stools available
Where | Ki hea Levels 4 & 5
Cost | Te utu Free entry
Wayne Barrar: Mai i te Pūranga Kōata | From the Glass Archive
Diatoms are tiny organisms that live in oceans, rivers, and lakes. The 19th century saw a craze for arranging the silica skeleton fossils of diatoms and other micro-organisms on glass slides for viewing through microscopes. Photographer Wayne Barrar has delved into this ‘glass archive’ to explore its microscopic wonders.
On now
23 Sep 2023 – mid 2024
Exhibition Ngā whakaaturanga
یکی بود یکی نبود | Tērā te Wā | Memory Spaces
Persian stories often begin with یکی بود یکی نبود (‘yeki bood, yeki nabood’), or ‘one was, one was not’. Here, artworks by Selina Ershadi and Pauline Rhodes explore ideas of presence and absence to tell stories about place and memory.
On now
23 Sep 2023 – mid 2024
Exhibition Ngā whakaaturanga
Kate Newby: SHE’S TALKING TO THE WALL
Nearly 1,000 wind chimes hang in front of you. Aotearoa New Zealand artist Kate Newby made this expansive artwork over 10 years. Through clay and glass, she explores how natural materials transform when shaped and fired.
On now
9 Dec 2022 – mid 2024
Exhibition Ngā whakaaturanga
Hīnaki: Contemplation of a Form
This exhibition provides a broad experience of hīnaki (eel traps). As well as displaying these taonga, it focusses on two early museum expeditions, Māori relationships with two significant rivers, and contemporary artworks related or responding to hīnaki.
On now
10 Jun 2023 – mid 2024
Exhibition Ngā whakaaturanga
Tanya Ashken
Over the last 60 years, Tanya Ashken has produced a remarkable body of work as a sculptor, silversmith, and jeweller. Her practice responds to the energy and rhythms of the world around her. This group of works highlights the diversity of Ashken's practice.
On now
23 Sep 2022 – mid 2024
Exhibition Ngā whakaaturanga
Encounters
These portraits represent mana - power and prestige. Some trumpet the status of European royalty, Māori leaders, or prosperous colonial settlers in New Zealand. Others advertise the skills of the artist. All carry with them stories from the past into the present.
On now
Long-term exhibition
Exhibition Ngā whakaaturanga