Collegiality and Confidence
Warmth, collegiality and collaboration defined the 2026 Aotearoa Art Fair — a sign that, in troubled times, Aotearoa’s tight-knit contemporary art community is finding its strength in connection.
Words: Emil McAvoy
Asked for my read on what the Aotearoa Art Fair revealed about the current moment in New Zealand contemporary art — it was the centrality of relationships, partnerships and support. Recently I have been reflecting on the potential roles of art fairs and other large-scale public art events in the context of increasingly extreme geopolitics. Art fairs aren’t known for their overt engagement with “politics” proper, yet nonetheless I went in looking for connections with all that’s happening in the world. What I found was connection itself.
This is to say: the vibes were good. This year’s Aotearoa Art Fair was a warm, welcoming and diverse get-together, with interpersonal relationships at the forefront. Though there are always competing interests at an art fair, and contrasting concepts of value and values, there was a palpable sense of collegiality and togetherness across sixty galleries and more than 200 participating artists.
Several years into the Fair operating on an annual basis at the Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland Viaduct Events Centre — and under the new ownership of Tim Etchells (also behind Sydney Contemporary, Art SG, Art Central Hong Kong, and Tokyo Gendai) and leadership of Fair Director Sue Waymouth and their team — it is feeling self-assured, confident and energised. Aotearoa has been getting its reps in.
The degree of genuine personal connection I felt across the four-day Fair and its associated programmes also reframed my sense of the “political”. I was perhaps looking too intently for more overt and edgy positions in selected artworks themselves, though I found it in Kauri Hawkins’ (Ngāi Tamanuhiri, Ngāti Porou, Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Pāhauwera, Aitutaki, Cook Islands) work with Chalk Horse, and his major stairway commission, as but one example. However, this year I was also gently and consistently reminded of the “personal-as-political” through the warmth of interpersonal connections, both cultivated and new. It’s fun to get hugged and hit on.
