What New Zealand’s Public Galleries Bought in 2025
Four leading institutions, the works they added, and what those choices reveal.
It’s interesting to see what the big public art galleries are acquiring. Sometimes they are filling obvious gaps. Sometimes they are reinforcing an artist’s standing. And sometimes they are backing artists who may matter much more in a few years than they do right now.
There are a lot of public art galleries in New Zealand, but I have focused here on four of the biggest and most important. Some collections are easier to search than others, so I may well have missed a few acquisitions. Still, I think this gives a pretty good sense of what was added to major public collections in 2025.
Te Papa
Te Papa’s 2025 acquisitions included works by Cora-Allan Lafaiki Twiss, Constance Gordon-Cumming and Brent Harris, along with other additions of art books, drawings and decorative arts.
The acquisition that stands out most is Cora-Allan’s Mauri series, a set of bark cloth works made as part of her journey around New Zealand by boat, retracing the late eighteenth-century voyages of James Cook. Twiss talks about the works in her own words on the Te Papa website. Twiss also has wider institutional visibility at the moment with the Mauri series included in Te Papa’s Slow Burn exhibition as well as Twiss having a solo exhibition at City Gallery Wellington.
Te Papa also acquired four works by Constance Gordon-Cumming from the 1870s. Gordon-Cumming was a travel writer and painter whose work across the South Pacific still sits in an interesting place, part colonial record, part artistic document. It is notable that she appears here and in Auckland Art Gallery’s acquisitions as well.
Then there is Brent Harris’s I weep my mother’s breasts from 1996, acquired from the artist’s personal collection. Ray Edgar’s interview with Harris in the Sydney Morning Herald explores the psychologically charged backstory to this painting in greater detail.
Auckland Art Gallery
Auckland Art Gallery acquired a number of works in 2025, but there are three in particular that stand out.
The first is Judy Millar’s One-Two, acquired by the Patrons of Auckland Art Gallery. Millar is hardly an unknown quantity, with her previous representation of NZ at the Venice Biennale, along with numerous other accolades. Instead, it is a vote of confidence in her continuing practice. The painting is bold, energetic and unmistakably hers. It’s described as “the hovering of two dynamics… the world of the earth / the world of the painting”, and honestly, it reminds me of the inter-dimensional gate to the upside down in the tv show Stranger Things.
Alongside that sits Ruth Ige’s Queen from the 7th earth (part 2), also acquired by the Patrons. This feels like it could be one of the smartest acquisitions made anywhere in the country in 2025. The work has real authority. It is ethereal, theatrical and self-possessed, with a faceless central figure that holds the whole painting together. I can’t wait to see this in person.
The gallery also bought Dorothy Kate Richmond’s Outside the Pa at Dunbar Sloane in November. The work sold for a hammer price of $65,000 against a high estimate of $35,000, setting a new auction record for Richmond’s works. When a public institution elects to buy in at that level, it is effectively confirming Richmond’s place in the history of New Zealand art is being reassessed upward.
Auckland Art Gallery also acquired four works by Constance Gordon-Cumming, echoing Te Papa. Other additions included Elizabeth Newman, Amanda Watson, Ruth Cleland, Vivian Lynn, Milli Jannides, Brett Graham, Giovanni Intra, Angela Tiatia, Peata Larkin, Stewart Maclennan, Carl Sydow and John Hoyte, along with Aboriginal works by Aileen Napaljarri Long and Nola Campbell.
The gallery also extended its collection of photography with works by James Chapman-Taylor and Steve Rumsey. It also acquired works by Mark Adams, whose solo exhibition was on at Auckland Art Gallery last year and is now at Christchurch Art Gallery. Finally, it also acquired photographs by Victoria Ginn taken while she was imprisoned in Afghanistan.
Christchurch Art Gallery
Christchurch Art Gallery acquired Robyn Kahukiwa’s Girl in a Bush Shirt at Webb’s in March 2025, just before the artist’s death the following month. The work sold for $52,580 including premium, well above its high estimate of $28,000, and is now the second-highest auction result for Kahukiwa.
The gallery also acquired Raymond McIntyre’s Street in Saint-Valery-sur-Somme. McIntyre spent much of his life living and working in London. Just across the English Channel, Saint-Valery-sur-Somme was a popular spot for artists with Frances Hodgkins being based there around the same time as McIntyre. His works, especially quality ones, are relatively scarce.
Another notable move was the transfer of Buck Nin’s Green Valley from Christchurch City Libraries. Christchurch Art Gallery already owns the better The Mamakus, so this builds depth rather than simply adding a name that has been popular at auction in recent years.
Other acquisitions included works by Madison Kelly, Bev Moon, Andrew Hamilton, George Turner, Maud Winifred Sherwood, Betty Curnow, Allen Maddox, Carl Sydow, Leslie Greener, Emma Fitts, Rickard Tawhai, Louie Zalk-Neale, Leo Bensemann, Claudia Pond Eyley and Janine Randerson.
Dunedin Public Art Gallery
Dunedin Public Art Gallery acquired a work by Shona Rapira Davies, No not my son not cannon fodder, made in 1986. The description is of an oil on board in three panels, but it is yet to be digitised online, so it is still unclear exactly what it looks like. Even so, it catches the eye immediately because Rapira Davies is so strongly associated with sculpture. Until the image is published it is hard to say more, but it is one of the more intriguing acquisitions on this list.
Another acquisition is Michael Smither’s Joseph with Two Teeth, gifted by the actor Sam Neill in memory of his mother. It is a strong, warm, very human Smither, the kind of picture that reminds you how effective he can be at capturing domestic life without overplaying it.
There were also interesting acquisitions of contemporary works by Angela Tiatia and Kathryn Madill.
Jim and Mary Barr were major New Zealand art collectors. Many works from their collection were gifted to the Dunedin Public Art Gallery in 2025 including works by Marie Shannon, Saskia Leek, Martin Creed and Box Codax, Dane Mitchell, Julian Dashper, Toss Woollaston, John Reynolds, Rohan Wealleans, Gillian Wearing, Francis Upritchard, August Ward, Ronnie van Hout, Merylyn Tweedie, Ali Senescall, Michael Smither, Peter Robinson, Barnard McIntyre, Peter Peryer and Jeffrey Harris.
What stands out
A few observations of who and what jumps out…
First, Cora-Allan and Mark Adams look like artists with real institutional momentum. In both cases, not only are they increasing their presence in public collections, but each also have solo exhibitions currently on display improving their wider visibility.
Second, Angela Tiatia appears in more than one public collection. That is the sort of repeat acquisition pattern worth noticing. It often marks the point where interest starts becoming consensus. But, some caution is needed, as artists working in video often struggle to translate institutional acclaim into commercial success.
Third, it is striking to see public galleries acquiring Robyn Kahukiwa and Dorothy Kate Richmond at the same time as their auction results move materially higher. The public and private markets do not always move together, but when they do, it usually means something.
And finally, my own picks: Peata Larkin and Ruth Ige. Their works resonate with me, and I would happily place either on my walls.