Good deal

Times have certainly changed in New Zealand dealer galleries as the photograph above shows. It is Martin Creed’s work number 329 Half the air in a given space at the Michael Lett Gallery in Auckland last year which now appears on the Hauser & Wirth web site. Apart from the nice tie-up with H&W this work is a marker of the growing familiarity we can now have with international art.

Was a time when, if you wanted to see art made by people off-shore, that was where you had to take your sorry self to see it. Now many of our dealer galleries regularly show or feature artists from all parts of the world. Excluding Australians, we have Gow Langsford with Katharina Grosse, Tony Cragg and Benar Venet, Hamish McKay’s long- time association with Jan van der Ploeg and NICJOB. Then there’s Sue Crockford with Boyd Webb and Daniel Buren plus of course Two Rooms Gallery’s residencies that have included Isaac Julien, Rana Islam (just nominated for this year's Turner Prize), and Paul Morrison. Add to that Starkwhite’s regular projects with overseas artists and Michael Lett’s Juliette Blightman and Chris Lopomi shows and you’re talking a rich and varied input from the private sector.
Image: Martin Creed, work number 329 Half the air in a given space at Michael Lett