City Gallery Wellington re-opens with Cornelia Parker

City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi re-opens in its heritage building in Te Ngākau Civic Square after two years on Saturday 10 October, with an exhibition from one of the most significant artists of the 21st century, Cornelia Parker.

“This is the biggest show that New Zealand will have seen in years. To have Cornelia Parker exhibit here so comprehensively is a privilege. What a way to open City Gallery Wellington,” said City Gallery Wellington Director Charlotte Davy.

“From the breakthrough work that made her a household name in Britain, to her latest installations, to work that has not been seen in over two decades, this is an exhibition that will become part of our collective memory.”

“Cornelia’s exhibition is full of beauty, humour, transformation and resurrection. I have no doubt that visitors will be astonished by the immediacy of the works. Her work will open you to new ways of thinking and will stay with you long after you leave,” Davy added.

The complexity and precision of Parker’s art means it is only possible to install with the long-lead in time offered by re-opening the gallery.

Parker arrives in the city in late September to install the exhibition.

“Much of my work is concerned with aftermath, with what remains after something has been through a violent or transformative event, and its potential to be reanimated. The reopening of City Gallery Wellington strikes me as that kind of story. Something paused, now back. I’m delighted that my first major survey in Aotearoa New Zealand is part of that new beginning,” she says.

The return of the gallery to Te Ngākau is supported by City Gallery Wellington partners WellingtonNZ, Wellington City Council, City Gallery Wellington Foundation, Boulcott Suites, Simpson Grierson, Singapore Airlines – Cargo and Singapore Airlines.

“Cornelia is the artist that Wellington needs right now. We have had a tough five or six years as a city, and her work provides us with a way of processing that. Through incredible beauty and pathos she helps us navigate the world and the darkness and chaos in it.

“Our city has missed this platform for art and discussion. City Gallery Wellington is the place you come to hear different conversations – of art, of culture, and all that intersects with that across disciplines. It is a new beginning for the gallery, and for our city,” said Davy.

The Cornelia Parker exhibition is curated by City Gallery Wellington’s Senior Curator, Aaron Lister, and UK-based independent curator Andrea Schlieker, former Director of Exhibitions and Displays at Tate Britain London.

“The works are coming from Europe and America, with one arriving straight from an exhibition in Japan. It’s involved a complex set of relationships and negotiations to get to this point. But in many
ways the real complexity begins with the installation – these are major installations that take an immense amount of work from a highly skilled team. And this is the magic of Cornelia’s work.

She transforms ideas and materials into extraordinary forms and encounters that shift – perhaps for an instant, perhaps forever – how we can see, understand, and potentially even change the world around us,” said Lister.

“Her beguiling installations elicit the extraordinary from the ordinary and have made Cornelia Parker one of the most beloved artists in the UK. We are now hugely excited to see Aotearoa audiences engage with her work and hope they too will be blown away by it”, said Schlieker.

City Gallery Wellington has a bold programme ahead, introducing the city to important international artists, Te Ao Māori and indigenous art, and showing the diversity of our local arts community.

“The reopening of City Gallery Wellington, in a resurrection of its own, marks a new beginning in the capital. The Gallery will play a key role in the economic and creative rejuvenation of Wellington,” said Diana Marsh, Chief Executive Tumu Whakarae at Wheako Pōneke Experience Wellington.

The exhibition is open daily from 10am – 5pm, and tickets are $25 for adults, $22 for concession, and just $2 for children.

A fully illustrated catalogue with contributions from both curators and a foreword by Charlotte Davy will be on sale during the exhibition. A special edition print created by the artist and a range of Cornelia Parker-themed merchandise has also been produced for this exhibition.

Cornelia Parker is represented by Frith Street Gallery, London.

Find out more about the exhibition at citygallery.org.nz/exhibition/cornelia-parker

Date published: 14 September 2026