The Walters Prize and people, people, people

Yesterday the finalists for the 2027 Walters Prize were announced: Edith Amituanai, Richard Frater, Ammon Ngakuru and Sorawit Songsataya. The triennial prize is the biggest and most prestigious contemporary art prize in the country, and has run since 2002. Winners receive the accolade and $50,000 (thanks to founding benefactors and principal donors Erika and Robin Congreve and Dame Jenny Gibbs). But being a finalist is a win too – the four will present work, either what they were nominated for or something new, at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, and an international judge will visit to select the winner. The finalists’ exhibition is an important date on the contemporary art calendar, and for years people will ask, “did you see what so-and-so presented at the Walters?” For our leading artists, presenting for the Walters is a milestone in their careers, one vividly remembered by the sector. It’s a high-profile showcase to present their practice, to present something refined that stakes who they are as a practitioner.

Finalists are chosen for works presented in the last three years by a revolving independent jury. This year the members were Tyson Campbell (Te Rarawa/Ngāti Maniapoto), artist and curator; Abby Cunnane, Manutaki Director, Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery; Becky Hemus, independent curator, writer, and editor of Current; and Hanahiva Rose, contemporary art curator at Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and PhD candidate, Victoria University Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. The jurors have noted in a statement that while the past three years have been marked by “political unrest, escalating conflicts, and environmental devastation,” each of the four finalists have responded by “turning an acute attention toward local and personal narratives, while expanding the material and conceptual possibilities of their practices.” So what are their practices?

Edith Amituanai is a New Zealand-born Samoan lens-based artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau. She was nominated for Vaimoe, 2024, a film first exhibited at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna Waiwhetū. It demonstrates her recent shift into moving image (from a mainly photographic practice). The proverb “e lele le toloa ae ma’au lava ile vai” (Pacific duck flies far, but will always return to water) encapsulates much of her practice. Amituanai’s work is grounded in belonging, family and community. It’s these that Amituanai continues to return to in her work, as she gently pushes against conventional ideas of home, relationships, proximity and distance. It is notable that this is Amituanai’s second nomination – she was nominated in 2008 for her series Dejeuner that examined a new Pacific diaspora, expatriate New Zealand Sāmoan rugby players living and working in France and Italy.

Richard Frater, originally from Wellington, lives and works in Berlin. He was nominated for Nicky’s conversion, 2024, first exhibited at Klosterruine Berlin. It’s another film work, one that records the rehearsal of a sermon by an Anglican priest, articulating the challenges of reconciling the interior self with the structures of the exterior world. In particular, the work describes a changing gender identity and offers a path through the Anglican tradition towards acceptance.

Ammon Ngakuru (Ngāti Maniapoto, Te Roroa and Ngāpuhi) lives and works in Tāmaki Makaurau, and was nominated for work that is currently gracing Auckland Art Gallery’s outdoor terrace. Three Scenes turn the terrace into an open air stage as four main sculptures ‘perform’ for viewers as props or set pieces. It seems the judges were particularly interested in an enlarged replica of a bar of Dove Soap carved in stone which supports three bronze flies. Dove Soap is a recurring motif in Ngakuru’s work, having appeared in paintings too. Ngakuru’s art resists fixed definitions. Instead, it hints at meanings through interrelationships of objects with an elegant restraint.

Sorawit Songsataya is a Thai-New Zealand artist currently based in Bangkok. Songsataya was nominated for the exhibition Fibrous Soul, presented at Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in 2024. Like much of  Songsataya’s recent work, the exhibition was materially rich, drawing together organic and artificial materials such as Ōamaru stone, fruit peel, shells, and false eyelashes and nails. Alongside the sculptures are a series of moving image works, and work made by the late weaver and kaitiaki of Te Niho o Te Ātiawa Maata Wharehoka. The result is slippages between human and more-than-human worlds, time, places, histories and the possibility of communication across them.

The 2027 Walters exhibition is scheduled to open in March 2027. Auckland Art Gallery’s Senior Curator, Global Contemporary Art, Natasha Conland will work closely with the artists to realise the exhibition. She says, “these finalists express materially rich works with unique, often humorous and intellectually rewarding content. It’s not surprising that they each carry a large following of supporters who are looking to ask new questions of art, and to explore its potential.” These supporters will have to wait over a year until the winner is announced – the international judge is not yet known, and the date is set at “mid-2027”.

Funding secured for Frances Hodgkins and Mozart Fellowships in 2027

The University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka paused the two prestigious fellowships in 2026 due to financial pressures but has secured a grant from the Russell Henderson Charitable Trust towards the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship in 2027, and various individual donors have contributed to the Mozart Fellowship. The Frances Hodgkins Fellowship is the country’s longest-standing full-year residential award for visual artists, while the Mozart Fellowship was established in 1969 to aid and encourage composers to advance their art. Both provide a studio and salary.

Vice-Chancellor Grant Robertson says “as was the case when they were first established it is the generosity of donors and supporters that is critical to success. We will work with the wider community to ensure the fellowships’ long-term sustainability and enable them to continue annually in perpetuity.” Applications for the fellowships open 1 April.

Record levels of engagement with the Arts

A survey by Manatū Taonga Ministry of Culture and Heritage shows 88% of New Zealanders visited or attended at least one form of arts, culture, heritage activity or place in 2025, 91% listened to New Zealand radio, music or podcasts at least once in the last three months, and 75% have watched New Zealand movies or shows. The data shows a gradual increase since the survey began in 2020, and was repeated in 2022 and 2023. Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Paul Goldsmith says this is good news, and “as part of our creative strategy Amplify we’re striving for a 10% increase in the number of kiwis engaging with the sector, and to create 5,000 more jobs by 2030.”

Italian Film Festival releases programme

From April through to January next year, 27 cinemas around the country will participate in the 56-page programme. Artistic director and festival co-founder Paolo Rotondo says he uses popular films from the previous year’s Italian releases as a starting point, “however, it’s very much driven, not by what I want to see, but by what I feel Italian film was trying to say about life in the previous twelve months through its cinematic releases.” The complexity of relationships is a central theme from thrillers to comedies, dramas to westerns, documentaries to Italian classics. “Through film, we are invited into lives that are not our own, but almost at a safe distance, through the screen,” says Rotondo.

Music Therapy Week theme announced

There are currently 84 practising Registered Music Therapists in Aotearoa, and their work will be celebrated from 10 to 15 April. This year’s theme is Weaving Connections | Te Poutama Hononga, highlighting the power of music therapy to break down barriers, build relationships, and support both individual and collective identity. Linda Webb MNZM, President of Music Therapy New Zealand, says the week is a chance to broaden public understanding of the profession. “Music Therapy Week provides opportunities for a wider circle of people in Aotearoa to engage with what is possible, including new ideas and innovative approaches to meet the changing needs of individuals and community-based groups.”

George Watson awarded the inaugural Jann Medlicott Award for Contemporary Art.

Tūranganui-a-Kiwa Gisborne-based artist George Watson (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Mutunga) has been awarded the 2026 Jann Medlicott Award for Contemporary Art. The $30,000 prize, facilitated by Toi Tauranga Art Gallery and supported by the Acorn Foundation, recognises a body of work that has made a critical impact within the field of contemporary art in the last year. Watson was awarded for her exhibition Apologia, presented at Wellington's Robert Heald Gallery in August 2025. It explored invasion and ancestry using symbolic materials such as wool bale sacking, pins, cultivated sea pearls and paraffin wax.

The judges (Andrew Clifford, Sophie Davis, and John Vea) released a joint statement that reflects on the criteria of the prize – that the artist must be “rising in prominence”. This could be read simply as emerging, but “we felt it suggested something more nuanced. It spoke to an artist whose practice is gaining momentum, becoming more visible, more confident and more assured in its intentions”. George Watson says, “this generous award will undoubtedly have a hugely positive impact on my work and the development of my artistic practice as well as the practices of future recipients.” 

Women In Film & Television announce award recipients

The 1,300-member organisation held its awards ceremony at St Matthew-in-the-City, Auckland last week, and gave out 11 awards to women and others working in film, television and associated industries. And the winners are:

SAE Award for Outstanding Newcomer: To Kura Turuwhenua

Hinterland Woman to Watch Award: To Vea Mafile’o

South Pacific Pictures Award for Achievement in Film: Cass Avery

Perpetual Entertainment Entrepreneurship Award: Sharlene George

Images & Sound Award for Success in Television and Digital: Robyn Malcolm and Dianne Taylor 

Professional Lighting Services Award for Unsung Heroine: Michelle Turner

Queenstown Camera Company Craft Award: Sophie Lloyd

Wētā FX Creative Technology Award: Jo Davison

Te Māngai Pāho Te Reo Māori Champion Award: Viv Wigby-Ngātai

Sky Award for Moana Excellence in the Screen industry: Lisa Taouma

Great Southern Film & Television Award for Outstanding Contribution to the New Zealand Screen Industry: Fiona Copland

Zonta Ashburton Women’s Art Award winner announced

Now in its tenth year, the Zonta Ashburton Women’s Art Awards focuses on the art of emerging and mid-career artists who identify as women living and working in Waitaha Canterbury. This year’s Premier Award was won by Miranda Parkes for her work dreamchaser. Miranda describes her work as being supported by “a weighty industrial shipping pallet. The pallet’s three-dimensional face, covered with ridges and indentations, offers a highly textured surface.” Along with a cash prize of $4,000, Miranda Parkes has won the opportunity to create a solo exhibition at Rokowhiria in 2027.

The Young Generation Award went to Georgia Swale for her painting Wairua. The judges described the work as having a “strong sense of self, and a clear creative direction into the future.” The ZAWAA awards exhibition will be on display until 19 April.

Recipients of Blumhardt Foundation’s Dame Doreen’s Gift announced

Maungarongo Te Kawa and Georgina May Young, have each won $10,000 from the foundation in gifts intended to encourage an establishing and a mid-career artist whose craft/object practices are outstanding. Maungarongo (Ron) Te Kawa (Ngāti Porou) is a takatāpui fabric artist, educator, and storyteller based in Woodville. Ron says, “this prize goes out to the people who have come to workshops and wānanga, stepped out of their comfort zones to have a go at creating textile art and truly be at the epicentre of their own stories.” Georgina May Young (Te Ūpokorehe, Te Whakatōhea, Irish) is based in Ōtepoti, Dunedin. Georgina comes from a background of makers and her studies of Māori art and craft at Rotorua’s Waiariki Institute of Technology fostered a love of working with harakeke.

Four artists selected for Gwen Malden Te Matau-a-Māui commissions

Four Hawke’s Bay artists have been selected for the second round of Gwen Malden Te Matau-a-Māui Art Commissions, thanks to a partnership between Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga Hastings Art Gallery and the Gwen Malden Charitable Trust. Asaki Kajima, Leanne Morrison, Raewyn Tauira Paterson and Miria Pohatu will each receive $10,000, alongside additional support from Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga, to develop new work to be exhibited August to October. Gwen Malden Charitable Trust Chairperson Tessa Tylee says the first round was hugely successful in supporting the artists and having many people see their work. “Times are different now in 2026 and perhaps the arts are being left behind a little as the financial belts are tightened,” she says. “So it is more relevant that we once again support and celebrate another four fantastic Hawke’s Bay artists”.

Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival programme released

The 11th annual Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival will run from 8–10 May. The programme includes globally renowned Australian author Hannah Kent, Aotearoa superstar Catherine Chidgey, activist Tāme Iti, former Olympian and reading influencer Gemma Flynn and former All Blacks mental skills coach Gilbert Enoka.

This year's Festival is the first under the leadership of the new Director Jordan Hamel. They say, “with an exciting programme, bold conversations, new innovations, and an incredible array of national and international talent, this year's Festival proves that Booktown remains a pillar of the Aotearoa literary landscape.”

Artspace Aotearoa welcomes new Curatorial Intern

Emily Lyall of Te Whakatōhea and Te Whānau-ā-Apanui is the K’ Road gallery’s 2026 Kaiwhakamahiri Pirihi Taiwhenua Curatorial Intern. She will deliver a programme in the lower ground floor space, The Kit, over the next ten months and assist with the main gallery’s operations. Lyall is interested in exploring alternative modes of curation and exhibition-making, and her studies in Māori Visual Arts, Toioho ki Āpiti and Museum and Heritage Practice, Te Herenga Waka inform her passion for arts engagement and culture. Lyall follows the inaugural Kaiwhakamahiri Pirihi Taiwhenua Curatorial Intern Jingcheng Zhao.

I'll be dialling in to Culture 101 this Sunday to chat with Perlina Lau about the Shanghai Biennale.

Musician and accidental TikTok star Danica Bryant reflected on posting on social media everyday for two years, losing sight of her intentions, and what having an audience really means in a Soapbox.

Choir and kapa haka have been in partnership since at least 1996. Sam Brooks talks to Dr. Karen Grylls about her latest collaboration with Te Waka Huia.

Debut novelist Laura Vincent has been shortlisted for the country's biggest literary prize, so we asked her to divulge in a Shameless Plug.