Cornelia Parker

After three years of closure, the newly renovated and strengthened City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi will host the art of Cornelia Parker. The English visual artist is best known for her innovative and contemporary sculpture and installation art. Her large-scale, immersive installations explore themes of destruction and reconstruction, transformation and metamorphosis. Objects are exploded, crushed, and suspended in a world upended and remade anew.

Curated by independent UK-based curator Andrea Schlieker and City Gallery Wellington’s Senior Curator Aaron Lister, City Gallery Wellington's exhibition will encompass Parker’s long career as an artist. This includes an immersive sound and light installation, ‘Stolen Thunder’. The work gathers the sounds of approaching storms from around the globe and across time. The exhibition will also showcase her paintings, photos, films, and sculptures.

“I have always said this is the one exhibition I want to do before I die,” said Charlotte Davy, Ringatohu Toi Director Art and City Gallery Wellington. “I have been following Cornelia Parker’s work for the last twenty years. Bringing her mischievous, dark, and literally explosive work to Wellington is incredible.” 

Parker’s work often fills entire rooms and invites the viewer to move through and around the art. Given its physical scale, the blank canvas of the reopened gallery offers the perfect opportunity to host the exhibition. The exhibition will kick off in October 2026, carrying through to March 2027. 

Charlotte notes the exhibition’s themes are also of particular relevance to Wellington. “I hope that the exhibition and our return to Te Ngākau Civic Square will reflect our city and also help remake it. We are looking forward to opening with a bang.”

Hero image: © Cornelia Parker. Courtesy of the artist and Frith Street Gallery, London