Dunedin Public Art Gallery

We think of it as the jewel in Dunedin’s crown, the must-visit place in Dunedin’s must-visit Octagon: the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. For a small, southern New Zealand city, the Dunedin Public Art Gallery is one that is entirely worthy of the international acclaim it has earned.

A gallery that showcases local, national and international work, Dunedin locals should consider themselves lucky to have access to such a treasure trove of excellent art that spans a number of decades and art movements. With a regularly changing programme of national and international exhibitions, it’s the kind of place that doesn’t go stale; instead, it constantly evolves and constantly develops.

The gallery boasts an impressive permanent collection, featuring works from the 15th century onwards. Much of the collection is English and European, though Japanese prints and 19th, 20th and 21st century New Zealand art features, too. Best of all, the gallery has an impressive collection of works by celebrated local artist, Frances Hodgkins, that are permanently on display.

It’s no secret that impressive architecture supports impressive art, and that’s very true of Dunedin’s Public Art Gallery building. The architecturally modern, large-scale space is an impressive blank canvas for artistic display and is particularly facilitative of brilliant art installation pieces. The airy, high-ceiling atrium of the gallery, from which artworks are often suspended, is an appropriately magnificent welcome into the alluring environment.

As seems almost essential for any good art gallery, here there’s a very good gallery shop and a very good gallery café too. You might as well make a day of it.

Artworks photographed:

1 - Style & Substance: a journey through the collection, installation view
2 - Claude Monet, La Débâcle, 1880. Collection of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery
3 - Style & Substance: a journey through the collection, installation view
4 - John Reynolds, Let be Let be, 2019
5 - Dunedin Public Art Gallery ‘Big Wall’ installation
6 - Dunedin Public Art Gallery Playspace
7 - Neil Dawson, ‘Cones’, 2000
8 - Dunedin Public Art Gallery Shop
9 - John Reynolds, The Deposition, 2002
10 - John Reynolds, The Falls, 2019
11 - Yona Lee, ‘Succession’, 2019, installation view