To the provinces

In 2018, a shoulder-shrugging fug seemed to settle over the Auckland art world: a lack of blockbusters at the Auckland Art Gallery; a lot of dreary, over-curated thematic exhibitions in other public spaces; an absence of intelligent, regular exhibition reviewing; and a dealer scene that felt, too often, like it was simply going through the commercial motions.

There were some highlights, sure — Ruth Buchanan winning the Walters Prize, Susan Te Kahurangi King’s wild, brilliant drawings at Artspace (which only just survived the heavy-handed exhibition design), Kalisolaite ’Uhila’s performance work at Michael Lett — but on the whole, things were a bit… meh.