After finding out the gallery was free I made a morning trip.I ended up staying for most of the day as it was much bigger than I thought it would be! The cafe was great and has nice views of the park. I was hoping to see more art by Maori artists though.
The reason it is a must is that it is conveniently located, free, and it has a small but mighty gallery of Moari portraits. The cafe was wonderful. It is near the sky tower which makes it easy to do both in a morning or afternoon. I enjoyed the paintings of New Zealand artists!
I had hoped to see much more of their early 20th century collection. It obviously displayed a large amount of NZ paintings as one would expect but having done my homework beforehand I was surprised not to see more work from British & French artists. Also very little indigenous Maori art was to be seen. A great shame.
Very nice place full of history and life, must visit. Kind of captures in a way.I suggest taking a tour it's about 40 minutes but it's worth it!
Well worth paying a visit - was great to get an insight into New Zealand art and easy location downtown. Reccomend for a few hours and there is a great coffee shoppe just next door
The museum has a decent collection, as you would expect from a country of this size. The collection has a good focus on S. Pacific and Maori artists, but also a few European rooms as well. Spend a couple of hours here, or more if you stop at the tasty and reasonably-priced cafe.
We were surprised that the art gallery was free, and proceeded to explore. The interactive Lego exhibit was great, and we got some fabulous photos in the light display exhibit. We enjoy contemporary art and watched a video from beginning to end of seamlessly gliding down alleys in a variety of places - very compelling. A very enjoyable experience.
Great public art gallery next to Albert Park and one block of Queens st shops. Take a guided tour if have the time (45-60 mins).Good variety of exhibits and nice gallery of NZ ArtNo charge to get in
I visited the gallery on a Wednesday. It was very calm. I could have joined their guided tour at 11.30am as i arrived at 11am but decided to tour on my own. It was a very pleasant morning-the artworks are well displayed and we can get quite close to them to observe the details. The variety of art was impressive covering European arts, NZ, modern, Historical. And the visit is free which is a plus!
We really wanted to visit the current Light Show, as well as see some Maori works and other art that the gallery might have. The light show was really good and worth the cost and visit. Disappointed to find that the Maori wing was unavailable, which would have been really nice to know at the time of purchasing the tickets! The highlight of our visit were a couple of works by English painters. Frank Bramley 'For of Such is the Kindom of Heaven' and John Everett Miillais ' Blow Thou Winter Wind'. Both powerful works evoking an emotional viewing experience.We'd suggest visiting first thing in the morning and hopefully having less people in the way of your experience, despite there being a large school party being there, when we arrived a little before opening time. Peter and Amy