CoCA - Centre of Contemporary Art

Ngā mihi to everyone who came to our closing weekend workshop. We absolutely loved seeing everyone’s creativity shine through their zines! Special thanks to Melanie Dixon for lending her expertise. The gallery will be closed for install until 30 August.

Ngā mihi to everyone who came to our closing weekend workshop. We absolutely loved seeing everyone’s creativity shine through their zines! Special thanks to Melanie Dixon for lending her expertise.

Join us this Sunday, 18 August, 1pm - 3pm for an artmaking session.

Unleash your creativity through zine making! Inspired by 'Cold Listening', award-winning writer Melanie Dixon will lead a short story writing and zine making session touching on the topic of climate change. Zines - short for magazines - are small self-published books that can contain writing, photography, and illustration.

This is a free workshop, no booking required. All materials are provided. Feel free to bring anything that will inspire you around this topic.
📷

The black and white photographs and video work eschew the spectacular, attempting instead to draw our attention more intimately to the forms, structures,
and details of glacial terrains. Tracing with his camera its transformations from mountaintop to terminus (end of the glacier), Kay poetically documents the glacier by both looking at and being in the environment.
Don't miss out on this amazing exhibition. Come see it in person until 18 Aug 2024

Ngā mihi to everyone that came to the exhibition opening of 'Cold Listening' by Jonathan Kay. It is so great to see such support for the arts.

📸 -

Special thanks to

'Cold Listening' will be on display until 18 Aug 2024.

‘Ways of Knowing’ is coming to an end! We are hosting a panel discussion at 5:30pm Friday with the artists, curators, and the SKUB president. Join us as we discuss the following:

How do you become a professional artist? What other arts careers are possible? How do you begin working in ‘the art world’? Bring along your questions and professional development desires to this panel discussion that seeks to make the arts more accessible.

🎨 Rachel Sleigh ‘One Square Metre of Te Onepoto - Taylors Mistake’ 2024, and ‘Ongaruru Beach’ 2024

📸 Owen Spargo

Amy Unkovich
Arrangement I
From ‘Brace Arrangements’ series.
Half scale mid parallel and Himātion
Steel, paint, ceramic

Only a few more days to view Ways of Knowing: Part II 🧡

📸 Owen Spargo

On Saturday we are hosting a quilting workshop with artist Rachel Ratten. Come along to explore the process of quilt composition through deconstruction and reconstruction of existing images.

This is also a chance to learn about Rachel’s practice as a contemporary artist in a field of art that has historically been regulated to the crafts as a dismissal from fine art.

This is a free event, starting at 11am!

🧵🪡

Ngā mihi nui to all who joined us at the opening of Ways of Knowing: Part II.

🌠 We have reduced hours for Matariki this Friday, and will be open 10am - 3pm.

🧵And we have a quilting workshop this Saturday at 11am with exhibiting artist Rachel Ratten! Free event, right here at CoCA.

It’s Volunteer Appreciation week! Massive shout out to our fantastic team of volunteers 🙏 Did you know we have around 50 volunteers involved at CoCA? - from our Gallery and Event Assistants, to the Programming Group, and the Board of Trustees. Thank you all so much for the time and effort you put into the gallery ❤️

Pictured: Margarita, Polly, and Alex … our Event Volunteer stars!

We are chuffed that Bryterlater Wines will be supporting our opening for Ways of Knowing Part II - Object Show, curated by emerging curators Meg Doughty and Monica Wang. For tonight we will be pouring the NV Rose.

Bryterlater Wines are made from organically farmed grapes from the North Canterbury wine region. James and Liv’s approach to winemaking is not dissimilar to artmaking, the joy is in the discovery and capturing the energy of a moment in time.

We are excited to merge art and wine at our opening @5.30pm. Come join us! 🥂

Opening tomorrow 5:30pm! We are so excited to share Ways of Knowing: Part II.

We also have a couple of events coming up this Saturday, 22nd June…

11am: An artist discussion of Rachel Sleigh’s work as a contemporary sculptor driven by a decolonial practice, facilitated by exhibition curators Meg Doughty and Monica Wang.

1pm: Create a kakahi shell out of clay, with artist Mi Kyung Jang in the cafe space ☕️ Learn about Mi Kyung’s practice as a contemporary artist working with ceramics. This is a free event!

See you all at CoCA soon! 🐚

Opportunity! CoCA is looking for expressions of interest from Waitaha-based artists, or those with previous arts management experience, to join our Board of Trustees.

Governed by the Canterbury Society of Arts Charitable Trust (CSA), CoCA is undergoing a revival after a challenging period, and is looking for Trustees who will help the organisation deliver its refreshed strategic direction.

CoCA is run by a dedicated team of staff and volunteers, and you would be joining a Board made up of people of diverse experience and skill sets. Ideally, you will bring:

✏️ An understanding of the charitable and/or not-for-profit sectors, with knowledge of the arts sector
✏️ An understanding of financial management and/ or arts funding
✏️ An understanding of the challenges faced within the sector, regionally and nationally
✏️ An appreciation of contemporary art

Candidates without previous governance experience are encouraged to apply, as Board induction and training can be provided.

If you’d like to be considered, or would like further information, head to the link in our bio 🔗 or get in touch via email 💌 [email protected]

🎨 Where light and footsteps fold, by Megan Brady

CoCA is excited to announce Ways of Knowing: Part II, the second outcome of our newly established Emerging Curators Programme designed to support early-career curators.

Part II: Object show. The sustained efforts of Indigenous peoples, the pressures of the climate crisis, and the eco critical turn in art history have ushered in a flurry of earth-centred exhibitions. In the presence of totalising categories, like the Anthropocene, this exhibition considers local ecologies through their material and relational facets.

Exhibiting artists: Mi Kyung Jang, Colleen Altagracia, Rachel Ratten, Rachel Sleigh, and Amy Unkovich

Join us at 5:30pm on Thursday, 20th June, to celebrate the opening of this exhibition, curated by Monica Wang and Meg Doughty.

Ways of Knowing: Part II will run until 5th July, with plenty of artist events and workshops… stay tuned!

Last chance to see Ways of Knowing: Part I. This painting exhibition closes on Sunday as we prep for Part II…

Ava Trevella, Ensemble, 2024.
Ferne McIntosh, The Guardians, 2024.
Anita Desoto, Her Fertility Turned Her Heart to Stone, After Jordaens, 2024.

And we are hosting a Ways of Knowing artist talk tomorrow (Sunday) at 2pm! 🎨

Meg Doughty and Monica Wang have curated Ways of Knowing as a part of our Emerging Curators Programme. Part I is a painting show featuring some fantastic artworks - including ‘Upstream, Kahikatea Mourning’ by Karen Greenslade.

Also, we are hosting an artist talk on Sunday at 2pm for Ways of Knowing! Come along 🎨

Ways of Knowing: Part I is open until Sunday. Pop in and see these beautiful paintings in the flesh!

🎨 Samantha Allen, Annotations, 2023.

Ngā mihi to all who celebrated the opening of ‘Ways of Knowing: Part I’ with us last Friday.

Curated by Monica Wang and Meg Doughty, Ways of Knowing: Part I runs until June 16. 🎨

Special shout out to our fantastic sponsors, we couldn’t do it without you. Three Boys Brewery, Christchurch Libraries, CNZ, Aspect Furniture, Signtech, and Christchurch City Council.

Image cred: Karyn 📸

Opening tonight! Ways of Knowing: Part I, curated by Monica Wang and Meg Doughty.

This painting exhibition features:
Ferne McIntosh
Ava Trevella
Estefania Mondaca Fibla
Sam Walker
Samantha Allen
Karen Greenslade
Anita DeSoto

We are also hosting an artist talk this Saturday at 11am with Monica, Meg, and the artists who contributed to Ways of Knowing Part I exhibition. Bring your questions along!

🎨 Estefania Mondaca Fibla, Shame Wound, 2024.

Reminder ❣️ We have a kōrero with MAP Artists in Residence at 2pm today.

And last day to visit MAP Resides 💃🏼

📸 Owen Spargo

Ngā mihi nui to all who joined us on Friday evening for the opening of MAP Resides.

This exhibition displays a curation of research that MAPs artists in residence have explored over the last decade.

MAP Resides is open until Sunday!

Join us on Friday night to celebrate the opening of MAP Resides, curated by Janaína Moraes and Kat Stefanova.

Movement Art Practice (MAP) is a not-for-profit contemporary dance organisation based in Ōtautahi Christchurch. Their mahi involves community dance classes, artist residencies, performance events, and workshops.

This show is a curation of MAP’s residency archives, featuring fragments of the experiences of some of the artists hosted between 2015 and 2024.

It is also an invitation to re-side with MAP: as we celebrate their past, we invite you to think and dream about what a future – as a community that moves together – could look like. We extend the call to walk backwards into the future: ka mua, ka muri.

The opening will also feature a performance by Eliza Sanders, MAP’s current resident.

We hope you can join us! MAP Resides will be on until Sunday 26 May.

Some installation shots of The streets are paved with water 📸 image cred - Owen Spargo

Thanks to all who visited this wonderful exhibition 🔶🔷

Last day to see The streets are paved with water!

& thanks to all who came by CoCA last night for Hannah Everingham’s performance 🥁

🎨 Sam Towse, Untitled 7 (2024)
📸 Owen Spargo

Olivia Chamberlain
Sequence 1 (2024)
Acrylic on canvas, oak frame
270 x 220mm

Open 10 - 5 today. Come in and visit The streets are paved with water, by Sam Towse and Olivia Chamberlain 🧡💜

Reminder! Hannah Everingham is performing at CoCA this Saturday night! Come along for some light refreshments and tunes 🥂 Free event, no booking required.

📸 Owen Spargo

Olivia Chamberlain
Sequence 2 (2024)
Acrylic on canvas, oak frame
340 x 275mm

Last week to view The streets are paved with water 💧

📸 Owen Spargo

Sam Towse
Untitled 1 (2024)
Concrete, paint
340 x 470mm

Last week to view The streets are paved with water 🌊 by Sam Towse and Olivia Chamberlain

📸 Owen Spargo

Sam Towse
Untitled 1 (2024)
Concrete, paint
340 x 470mm

Last week to view The streets are paved with water 🌊

📸 Owen Spargo

Kia ora everyone, CoCA will be closed on Anzac Day this Thursday 🌿❤️ We will open again with regular hours Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Come in and see our latest exhibition The streets are paved with water.

🎨 Olivia Chamberlain
📸 maverick_aesthetic_photo

Last Thursday we opened The streets are paved with water, by Olivia Chamberlain and Sam Towse.

It was amazing to welcome the community into Ō Papa Gallery and share this incredible exhibition with the public.

The streets are paved with water is on until 12 May. More information about this show is available on our website.

Opening event images by Bri Lawrence.