Shannon Te Ao at the Physics Room opens this weekend

I just wanted to recommend to those who might be in Christchurch before April 13, to check out artist (and my Massey U colleague) Shannon Te Ao's new exhibition at the Physics Room. Shannon is probably New Zealand's most in-demand emerging artist at the moment, practically double-booked as an invited artist to the 2014 Sydney Biennale, which has engendered a firestorm of controversy of late. If anyone can weather this storm and the act of attempting to appear in several places all at one time, I'm hoping it's Shannon, as he's artist of great talent and energy, plus I want him to turn up to co-teach my classes in a coupla weeks!

Simon Starling Exhibition in Wellington

An extensive overview of the Copenhagen-based British artist Simon Starling opened last night at the Wellington City Gallery. From what I could ascertain, between the limbs and over the shoulders of the sizeable, mostly well-dressed (unlike myself) art crowd, it's a very impressive show with much to recommend, nicely representative of Starling's interdisciplinary, evocative hybridized practice that incorporates aspects of cinema, photography, installation, and sculpture with a heavy emphasis on looking at historical fact and fiction, objects and illusions. Will be musing a lot more about this in my upcoming review of the show for the NZ Listener. For more info on the show including some other links, see: http://www.citygallery.org.nz/exhibitions/simon-starling-speculum And if you're in Wellington this evening, the Turner Prize-winning artist will be delivering a free lecture at 6 PM. http://citygallery.org.nz/events/open-late-international-guest-lecture-simon-starling

Master of Fine Art and Master of Design Exhibitions Opening at Massey University

Works by Massey University's MDes students, and the final graduates from the one-year MFA programme will soon be on view in the last February exhibition. The College of Creative Arts will be exhibiting more graduate work from the MDes and the new two-year MFA programme in November. Exhibition Details: Open to the public daily, February 7-15, 12noon-5pm, Massey University Wellington, Entrance C off Wallace Street. The exhibition is located within adjacent buildings on the campus : Te Ara Hihiko, The Engine Room gallery and Block 1. Congratulations to all the artists and designers involved!