Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery (commonly known as Te Uru, formerly known as Lopdell House Gallery) is a contemporary art gallery located in

Titirangi Titirangi is a suburb of West Auckland, New Zealand, West Auckland in the Waitākere Ranges (local board area), Waitākere Ranges local board area of the city of Auckland in northern New Zealand. It is an affluent, residential suburb located t ...

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

. The gallery, which serves the West Auckland region, was originally opened within

Lopdell House Lopdell House is a List_of_category_1_historic_places_in_Auckland, category I historic building in Titirangi, Auckland. It was first opened as Hotel Titirangi in 1930. In 1942 it was bought by the Ministry of Education and became a school for th ...

in 1986.

Redevelopment

The gallery closed in 2012 for a building project, with the new custom-built gallery, designed by

Julie Stout Julie Margaret Stout (born 1958) is a New Zealand architect, academic and urban design advocate based in Auckland. She is a Distinguished Fellow of New Zealand Institute of Architects, Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZI ...

of Mitchell & Stout Architects, opening on 1 November 2014. The building project received a warm critical reception and has received awards in the 2015 Auckland Architecture Awards Public Building and Heritage categories, and the 2015 New Zealand Architecture Awards Public Building category. Te Uru's inaugural director was Andrew Clifford, who was appointed in 2013. Clifford's departure was announced at the end of 2022, and he took on his next role as Director of the

Sarjeant Gallery The Sarjeant Gallery at Pukenamu, Queen's Park Whanganui is a regional art museum with a collection of international and New Zealand art. It was closed for 10 years for redevelopment and re-opened on Saturday 9 November 2024. In 2024 it was anno ...

in March 2023, after serving as director for 10 years. The inaugural curator was Ioana Gordon-Smith.

Name change

The name of the gallery references the

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

phrase Te Hau a Uru (wind from the west), meaning the air currents the West Auckland (Waitākere/Hikurangi) area is known for. The name was chosen in consultation with local

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori, roughly means or , and is often translated as "tribe". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, and is typically pluralised as such in English. ...

Te Kawerau ā Maki Te Kawerau ā Maki, Te Kawerau a Maki, or Te Kawerau-a-Maki is a Māori ''iwi'' (tribe) of the Auckland Region of New Zealand. Predominantly based in West Auckland (Hikurangi also known as Waitākere), it had 251 registered adult members as of J ...

Exhibitions

Te Uru hosts the annual

Portage Ceramic Awards The annual Portage Ceramic Awards is New Zealand's premier ceramics event. Established in 2001, the awards are funded by The Trusts Charitable Foundation and administered by Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery (formerly Lopdell House Gallery) ...

, New Zealand's premier prize for ceramics. Many external curators have realised independent projects at Te Uru and Lopdell House Gallery, including Ron Brownson, Karl Chitham, Moyra Elliot, Douglas Lloyd-Jenkins, Haru Sameshima, Peter Simpson, Linda Tyler and Ian Wedde. Damian Skinner was curator of the exhibitions ''Hattaway, Schoon, Walters: Madness and Modernism'' (1997) and ''Steve Rumsey and the Camera Club Movement 1948-64'' (2003). Major exhibitions staged since the gallery's 2014 re-opening include Seung Yul Oh's ''HaPoom'', Janet Lilo's ''Janet Lilo: Status Update'', Caroline McQuarrie's ''No Town'', and Judy Millar's site-specific installation ''The Model World''. To mark Roy Good's 50 years of art career, the gallery had a major retrospective of Good's work titled ''Parallel Universe: The Art and Design of Roy Good'' that ran from 1 December 2018 to 10 February 2019. The exhibition was curated by Ed Hanfling. The exhibition was accompanied by a publication authored by Hanfling with contributions by Andrew Paul Wood and Andrew Clifford. In May 2023, there was a major exhibition of Andy Leleisi'uao, titled ''Unbeautiful Evening'', where some of his damaged works were affected by the catastrophic 2023 Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods are displayed.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery Buildings and structures in Auckland Museums in Auckland Art museums and galleries in Auckland Art galleries in New Zealand Art museums and galleries established in 1986 1986 establishments in New Zealand Tourist attractions in Auckland Arts centres in New Zealand Te Kawerau ā Maki West Auckland, New Zealand