The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. Usually known as Te Papa, it opened in 1998 after the merging of the National Museum of New Zealand and the National Art Gallery. An average of more than 1.5 million people visit every year, making it the 26th-most-visited art gallery in the world. Te Papa operates under a bicultural philosophy, and emphasises the living stories behind its cultural treasures.
Rita Angus was a New Zealand painter who, alongside Colin McCahon and Toss Woollaston, was regarded as one of the leading figures in twentieth-century New Zealand art. She worked primarily in oil and watercolour, and became well known for her portraits and landscapes.
Shona Rapira Davies is a sculptor and painter of Ngātiwai ki Aotea tribal descent. Currently residing in Wellington New Zealand.
Sir Mountford Tosswill "Toss" Woollaston was a New Zealand artist. He is regarded as one of the most important New Zealand painters of the 20th century.
Ivan Thomas Bootham was a New Zealand novelist, short story writer, poet and composer.
Joe (Joseph) Bootham was a New Zealand painter who was noted for his landscape drawings and paintings and for portraiture.
Luit Bieringa (1942–2022) was a New Zealand art historian, art gallery director and documentary film maker. Bieringa was born in Groningen in the Netherlands and emigrated to New Zealand with his family in 1956.
Helen Flora Victoria Scales (1887–1985) was a notable New Zealand artist. She was born in Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand in 1887.
Ian Christopher Scott was a New Zealand painter. His work was significant for pursuing an international scope and vision within a local context previously dominated by regionalist and national concerns. Over the course of his career he consistently sought to push his work towards new possibilities for painting, in the process moving between abstraction and representation, and using controversial themes and approaches, while maintaining a highly personal and recognisable style. His work spans a wide range of concerns including the New Zealand landscape, popular imagery, appropriation and art historical references. Scott's paintings are distinctive for their intensity of colour and light. His approach to painting is aligned with the modernist tradition, responding to the formal standards set by the American painters Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland and Jules Olitski.
Jacqueline Mary Fahey is a New Zealand painter and writer.
Judith Eleanor Jane Cowan, generally known as Juliet Peter, was a New Zealand artist, potter, and printmaker. Her husband Roy Cowan was also a well-known New Zealand potter, printmaker and illustrator.
Dame Robin Adair White is a New Zealand painter and printmaker, recognised as a key figure in the regionalist movement of 20th-century New Zealand art.
The Rita Angus Residency in Wellington, New Zealand, is an opportunity for artists to live in the former home of Rita Angus, one of New Zealand’s best-known painters, while creating a body of new work.
Helen Hitchings was a New Zealand art dealer, best known for the short-lived but influential eponymous dealer gallery she opened in Wellington in 1949.
Jenny Gwynndd Harper is a New Zealand academic and museum professional. She was most recently the director of Christchurch Art Gallery.
Peter Joseph John McLeavey was a New Zealand art dealer and advocate based in Wellington.
Christina Joy Barton, known as Tina Barton, is a New Zealand art historian, curator and gallery director. She is currently director of the Adam Art Gallery.
Douglas Kerr MacDiarmid was a New Zealand expatriate painter, known for his diversity and exceptional use of colour, and involved with key movements in twentieth-century art. He lived in Paris, France, for most of his career.
Jo Torr is a New Zealand artist. Torr's work explores cultural exchange between European and Polynesian peoples through the lens of costume and textile history.
Peter Selwyn Webb (1933–2019) was an early supporter and promoter of art, and particularly contemporary New Zealand art, for over sixty years. His work spanned public art museums, publishing and the founding of the Peter Webb Galleries and Webb's auction house.
