Amid the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are still things to look forward to. On 24 February 2022, a new gallery, Season, opened in central Tāmaki Makaurau at 6 Lower Albert Street, Commercial Bay. Co-director Francis McWhannell comments, “The downtown waterfront has long been the beating heart of the city, and despite the disruptions of the past two years there is a great sense of energy and growth in the area. It felt like a natural place for an art space that aims to be expansive and welcoming.”

Francis and co-director Jade Townsend (Ngāti Kahungunu, Te Ātihaunui-a-Pāpārangi) are well-known and respected within the Aotearoa art world. Jade is an artist, curator, and writer whose CV includes residencies in London and Beijing, and collaborations with Hèrmes and Comme des Garçons. Last year, she organised the popular group show Whānau Mārama at Commercial Bay, partnering leading Māori artists—both early-career and established—with retailers to create a rich and stimulating experience. She also presented work at a host of galleries, including RM, Objectspace, and Masterworks, held a residency at Artspace Aotearoa, and occupied the mobile ‘Caravannex’.

Francis is a writer and curator who was raised in the arts (his father is an artist and his mother an actor). He has produced essays for exhibitions at institutions like the Gus Fisher Gallery and the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata, and has written for a wide range of arts and culture websites and magazines, including Art New Zealand, Art News New Zealand, the Pantograph Punch, and The Spinoff. He is curator of the Fletcher Trust Collection, one of the largest and longest-lived private collections of art in the country, and he has been judge for a number of art awards, such as the Eden Arts Art Schools Award and the Estuary Art and Ecology Award.

Season opens with Hono, an exhibition of work by Jade and Neke Moa (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Tūwharetoa), a globally recognised leader in Indigenous adornment. Through handmade artworks, the artists explore concepts of cultural identity, place, and unity, enacting their individual strategies for restoring spiritual connections to te ao Māori. Jade observes that “the show was a natural beginning for Season, which seeks to celebrate the transformative power of art”.

The gallery is a place of storytelling. Francis notes that “art is a fundamentally a means of communication. It speaks to us deeply, if often mysteriously. It is for everyone. Jade and I wanted to create a space in which a wide range of different people could connect with high-quality art from Aotearoa and abroad. We aim to present unexpected combinations of works in the spirit of celebration, recognising that the contribution made by artists to our collective well-being has never been more important.”

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