Sumer Comes to Auckland

New Zealand-based gallery opens its new space with a bang.

Words: Erin Irwin

Sumer has made the leap from Tauranga to New Zealand’s largest city Auckland. Since its opening in 2018, the gallery has exhibited its impressive stable of artists both locally and internationally. Their success has made a move to New Zealand’s cultural capital an obvious step.

“We are absolutely delighted to be in Tāmaki Makaurau, and to be opening our new doors to present our program to audiences here”, says the gallery, which has settled on Beach Road within a venerable 130-year-old building. “The new gallery melds new with old – to the best of our ability, we have remained sympathetic to this heritage in positioning and building the gallery within its surrounds”.

To celebrate a new era for the gallery, the exhibition Nova will be presented at its new premises. With an aim to give its audience a taste of things to come, Nova will feature both well-established represented artists, as well as new faces that will feature in Sumer’s future line-up.

The exhibition will feature works by artists including Sandra Bushby, Xin Cheng, Hikalu Clarke, Ruth Cleland, Eleanor Cooper, Henry Curchod, Tjalling de Vries, Miles Hendricks, Yolunda Hickman, Jesse Hogan, Cindy Huang, Matthew Galloway, Lara Merrett, Michael Morley, Martyn Reynolds, James Oram, Sam Rountree Williams, Huseyin Sami, Brontë Stolz, Ella Sutherland, Zina Swanson, Ava Trevella, Jan van der Ploeg, August Ward, and Anto Yeldezian.

“Though the show has no prescriptive theme, it is a selection of work that possesses a radiance and newness suggested by the title”, states the gallery, “Nova has a deliberate focus upon presenting younger and lesser-known artists, with the understanding that the gallery, as the city’s newest addition, will be equally new to many.”

Nova will be open Wednesday 31 May until Saturday 1 July at 27 Beach Road, Auckland Central, New Zealand.

This article was posted 29 May 2023.

Image: Jan van der Ploeg, WALLPAINTING No. 534, Untitled, 2023. Courtesy: the artist and Sumer, Auckland.

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