Event Category: Artist Talks

Step beyond the Fair and into the city with this artist talk and guided encounter with Sculpture Trail artists Sione Faletauand Peata Larkin.

Meeting outside the Viaduct Events Centre, this session explores the Sculpture Trail as a site-responsive exhibition across Auckland’s waterfront. Faletau’s Lalava ki he Uho – Connected to the Essence translates harbour sound into kupesi pattern, while Larkin’s Ka Mau, Ka Ora draws on weaving traditions to honour wāhine Māori and invite audience interaction.

Together, their practices reflect Moana and Māori perspectives on connection, place, and cultural continuity—offering insight into how public sculpture can activate both environment and community.

Elizabeth Thomson will discuss her major sculptural installation at James Blackie’s booth. ‘Wavy Gravity’ features Elizabeth’s incredible cast bronze, oil painted Lancewood leaves, installed in mesmerising patterns on the wall that create sensations of mind bending scale, pulsing waves, and rhythmic sound.

Booth 02
This event is free to all ticket holders and does not require an RSVP.

Ben Pearce presents his new bronze sculptures at the James Blackie booth at Aotearoa Art Fair. Ben’s distinctive work has been part of the Fair for many years, including the Aotearoa Art Fair Sculpture Trail presented by Viaduct Harbour. Hawke’s Bay based Ben will provide insights into the turning his imagined metal puzzles into towering, elegant sculptural forms.

Booth 02
This event is free to all ticket holders and does not require an RSVP.

Amy Potenger will discuss the translation of her painting practice into the medium of monotype printmaking.

Booth 42
This event is free to all ticket holders and does not require an RSVP.

Charles and Janine Williams have an extensive art practice that expands the boundaries of graffiti, mural art and fine art. This husband-and-wife duo are renowned for their large-scale public mural art practice and their work can be found across urban landscape environments, business and corporate buildings and civic spaces throughout Aotearoa and the Pacific. Their art practice is increasingly found gracing the walls of galleries across the country. They present new works at the Te Manawa booth and Nigel Borell sits in conversation with couple to discuss their unique collaborative and the ideas behind the work.

Booth 19
This event is free to all ticket holders and does not require an RSVP.

Join Moira Lomas (Ngāi Tahu, Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe) and Tim Melville (Te Arawa, Ngāti Whakaue, Te Atiawa) for a discussion about ‘Toi Iho’, the Māori art trademark, and the ways that toi Māori brings powerful concepts and stories to life.

Booth 27
This event is free to all ticket holders and does not require an RSVP.

Chris Wise will describe his 2026 journey as a Nock Art Foundation artist-in-residence in the awe-inspiring landscape of Queenstown. Working plein air producing this series specifically for Aotearoa Art Fair, these artworks represent a significant moment of cross-Tasman artistic exchange -an Australian painter shaped by the physical and elemental realities of place. These artworks carry the imprint of Otago itself – created on New Zealand soil for a New Zealand audience.

Booth 49
This event is free to all ticket holders and does not require an RSVP.

Raised in Dunedin New Zealand, Gabby will describe how studying ceramics at Otago art school led her to move to Australia as a practicing artist, working mostly in 2-dimensional watercolour – until recently returning to her ceramic practice in 2025 led her back home to NZ and to Aotearoa Art Fair, Auckland. Gabby will also describe how her work represents her hybrid transracial background as a Chinese adoptee, raised by a white family in New Zealand, now living on Gadigal land in Sydney, Australia.

Booth 49
This event is free to all ticket holders and does not require an RSVP.

Jane Ussher MNZM, widely recognised as one of New Zealand’s foremost portrait and documentary photographers, reflects on “the unusual, the hidden, and the minutiae” within the historic Antarctic hut of Robert Falcon Scott, in conversation with Milford Galleries.

Booth 30
This event is free to all ticket holders and does not require an RSVP.

Alexander McKenzie, a highly regarded figure in Australian landscape painting, will be at the Martin Browne Contemporary booth to discuss his work and practice, which sits between memory and imagination. Drawing on classical European traditions, his paintings focus less on depicting place and more on evoking mood, light, and an inner sense of time.

Booth 26
This event is free to all ticket holders and does not require an RSVP.

Lissy & Rudi Robinson-Cole are partners in art-making and in life. Their artworks explore mātauranga Māori and the importance of ancestral knowledge through crocheted woollen sculpture. To date the artists’ largest and most ambitious project has been Wharenui Harikoa (House of Joy), a full-size crocheted meeting house created in collaboration with whanau, community and international textile artists. Predominantly self-taught artists, together their unique crocheted sculptural creations make a unique and vibrant contribution to the conversations about the boundaries between craft, object art and conventional fine arts at present. Come hear the conversation as they talk with Nigel Borell about their art practice and future ambitions.  

Booth 19
This event is free to all ticket holders and does not require an RSVP.

Step into the world of The Huxleys as Will & Garrett share insight into their vibrant photographic practice. Known for their bold visual language and signature sparkle, The Huxleys will take you inside their creative process. Exploring their practice of blending sparkle, surrealism and the absurd to celebrate the beauty of nature and queer love, their work captures the surreal sparkling beauty of two queer lovers refusing to descend into the darkness. Join us for this opportunity to hear Will & Garrett speak on their work before catching their performance at the fair.

Booth 12
This event is free to all ticket holders and does not require an RSVP.

After her recent success across Europe, China, Australia and Miami, Ebony Russell will be joining us at the Martin Browne Contemporary booth to present new works and discuss her artistic practice.

Booth 26
This event is free to all ticket holders and does not require an RSVP.

A conversation between Tim Melville and Tendai Mutambu, Director of Enjoy Contemporary Art Space, about Areez Katki’s recent overseas exhibitions and ongoing work around experimental storytelling.

Booth 27
This event is free to all ticket holders and does not require an RSVP.

Join Bronte Leighton-Dore at the Martin Browne Contemporary booth and hear her explain her practice and the works she has made for the Aotearoa Art Fair.

Booth 26
This event is free to all ticket holders and does not require an RSVP.

Nicola Bennett’s paintings translate the sensory world of cooking into abstract colour and gesture, layering flavour, language and movement into paint.

Booth 23
This event is free to all ticket holders and does not require an RSVP.

Photographer Scott Perkins joins us to discuss a practice defined by patience, precision and a deep sensitivity to landscape. Waiting for the exact alignment of light, atmosphere and form, Perkins creates images that hover between observation and reverie: scenes that feel both discovered and somehow enchanted. In this conversation he will speak about the craft behind the work, and how photography can hold a fleeting moment of land, sea and sky in perfect suspension.

Booth 20
This event is free to all ticket holders and does not require an RSVP.