Wellington's City Gallery Te Whare Toi will make a spectacular return next October with a major exhibition featuring the groundbreaking work of British conceptual artist Cornelia Parker. The gallery, which has been closed since July of last year due to construction work in the Civic Square precinct, will showcase Parker's inventive large-scale installations and sculptures that have captivated audiences worldwide.
Parker is renowned for her mesmerizing and dramatic artistic approach, which involves transforming found objects through processes of destruction, crushing, and suspension to create entirely new meanings. Her most famous works include a garden shed that she had the British Army explode and artworks created using gunpowder. Through these unconventional methods, Parker explores profound themes including the potential of materials, violence, climate change, world politics, human experience, memory, and beliefs.
The gallery's closure was necessitated by essential construction work after a report revealed the building's vulnerability to earthquakes. During this period, contractors have been strengthening the structure and implementing various upgrades. Significant improvements include the removal of floating ceilings, which will now allow the gallery to display large-scale works like Parker's more easily, as well as enhancements to the air conditioning system.
Andrea Schlieker, the exhibition's co-curator and former director of exhibitions and displays at London's Tate Britain, praised Parker's consistent innovation. "She is one of the most consistently inventive artists I know. There is a real sense of magic and wonder to her installations. I think it's this experiential quality of her work that makes it so beguiling," Schlieker said. Tate Britain held a comprehensive retrospective of Parker's work in 2022.
The Wellington exhibition will feature several of Parker's celebrated signature pieces on loan from the prestigious Tate collection. Visitors will experience the early, room-filling installation "Thirty Pieces of Silver" from 1988 and the extraordinary "Cold Dark Matter" from 1991, famously known as the exploded shed. These works demonstrate Parker's unique ability to create profound artistic statements from destruction and transformation.
The show will also present never-before-seen works that showcase Parker's continued evolution as an artist. Among these is "The Future," a 2023 film featuring schoolchildren sharing their visions for what lies ahead. Additionally, "Stolen Thunder (A Storm Gathering)" is a sound installation that creates an immersive environment with a solitary light bulb hanging from the ceiling and twelve loudspeakers that surround visitors in a carefully crafted soundscape of rain and thunder.
A particularly striking new addition is "PsychoBarn (Cut Up)" from 2023, a room-filling installation that references the iconic Bates Motel from Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho." The exhibition will also display some of Parker's recent photogravures and a series of her first abstract paintings created using fossilized dinosaur excrement – works that have never been shown in a museum setting before.
The exhibition will include "Doubtful Sound," an eerie and quietly unsettling 2010 film installation that Parker created during a previous residency in New Zealand. This work adds a local connection to the international scope of her artistic practice.
Charlotte Davy, City Gallery's director of art who has followed Parker's career for two decades, emphasized the community's eagerness for the gallery's return. "The thing I hear the most in my role is, 'I miss City Gallery,' and Wellingtonians tell me they miss going to the gallery in Te Ngākau all the time," Davy explained. She described Parker's work as accessible, humorous, hopeful, surprising, and serious.
The choice to feature Parker's transformative works as the reopening exhibition was deliberate, according to Davy, given that the gallery itself has undergone its own journey of change. "It was a no-brainer to ask her to come at a time when the city was trying to rebuild itself," she said. "People go through these cycles, and I think cities do, too. Wellington has been through that a couple of times in my lifetime, and this time it's been a very tough period."
Davy drew parallels between Parker's artistic process and the city's renewal efforts. "The role of beauty and inspiration in renewal is like spring. The flowers come and your mood lifts. Cornelia's work is the same – you come through those processes of destruction and come out into a new space, new thinking and new energy. There is a very direct parallel with what is happening in our city – renewal is happening."
This exhibition continues City Gallery's distinguished series of major exhibitions featuring outstanding women artists, following previous shows of works by Yayoi Kusama, Cindy Sherman, and Hilma af Klint. Until the main gallery reopens, City Gallery continues to present satellite exhibitions in venues throughout the region.
The Cornelia Parker exhibition is scheduled to run from October 10, 2026, to March 7, 2027, with tickets becoming available in December 2025. This highly anticipated reopening promises to mark a significant moment in Wellington's cultural landscape.
