Te Wheke: Pathways Across Oceania

This exhibition is now closed

Experience the Gallery’s collection from the perspective of our place in Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, the Pacific Ocean.

Te Wheke means the octopus in te reo Māori. For many cultures around the Pacific Ocean, this resourceful, adventurous creature is a symbol of early voyages from the Polynesian homelands of Hawaiki. Full of stories of migration, connection and belonging, this huge new exhibition reflects the connections and tensions that shape our past, present and future.

Te Wheke includes tivaevae, raranga (weaving), whakairo (carving), painting, works on paper, video, sculpture, photography and installation art – all telling a new story of Aotearoa’s art history, looking from the Pacific outwards.

Developed in consultation with Stephanie Oberg. 

Read a review of this show in the British magazine Apollo

Collection works in this exhibition

114 items