From The Wall Real Estate’s house party to The Huxleys’ disco-infused performance, here are seven highlights not to miss at Aotearoa Art Fair 2026.

There’s a certain energy that settles over Tāmaki Makaurau when the Aotearoa Art Fair returns. It seems to pull collectors, creatives and the quietly curious into the same orbit. For 2026, the fair is back at the Viaduct Events Centre from 30 April to 3 May, bringing together some of the most compelling artists and galleries from across Aotearoa and beyond. Whether you’re there with intent or simply find inspiration, it’s a space to look closely, ask questions, and maybe even discover something that lingers with you.

1. MARS Gallery (Booth 12): The New Now — From MARS to Aotearoa

Melbourne-based gallery MARS presents seven innovative voices whose trailblazing practices speak to our global present: Kenny Pittock, Miranda Hine, Atong Atem, Tony Lloyd, Telly Tuita, The Huxleys, and Kohl Tyler.

Spanning photography, ceramics, painting, and performance, the presentation explores memory and diaspora, reimagining histories both personal and global. Highlights include new work by internationally acclaimed Atong Atem, released exclusively for the fair, a new series by Sydney Contemporary’s sell-out painter Miranda Hine.

The Huxleys, Where Have All The Flowers Gone, 2021. Courtesy of the artist and MARS Gallery.

2. Opening Night Spectacle: Love Is in the Air by The Huxleys

At 6.30pm on Thursday 30 April, The Huxleys take over the fair with a live performance of Love Is in the Air, presented by MARS Gallery. Known for their extravagant costumes, theatricality, and cult following, the duo bring colour, glamour, and high drama to opening night. Anchored in their ethos of radical joy, the performance positions love as both message and method.

Cumulus Structure, 2026, Gregor Kregar, Gow Langsford Gallery. Photo by Jeremy Ho.

3. Gregor Kregar’s Floating Sculpture at Viaduct Harbour

There’s something generous in this gesture by the fair, extending beyond the booths and into the open air of the city. Kregar’s newly commissioned Cumulus Structure subtly reorients the Viaduct Harbour Marina at Te Mata Topaki.

Composed of geometrically fragmented stainless steel panels, the work stages an engineered impossibility: a dense, industrial material made to feel atmospheric. By day, it appears faceted and reflective, shifting with water and movement. By night, neon light dissolves its solidity into colour and illusion, the sculpture seeming to drift—its form doubled across the harbour.

What lingers is the paradox: a work built from weight performing lightness, gathering viewers into a shared moment of suspension.

4. Claudia Kogachi, And Just Like That!, 2024 (Gow Langsford Gallery)

Claudia Kogachi is a Japanese-born, Tāmaki Makaurau–based artist whose practice spans painting and textile, shaped by a deeply autobiographical and culturally layered visual language. A First Class Honours graduate of Elam School of Fine Arts, she has become one of Aotearoa’s most distinctive contemporary voices, recognised for her bold, flattened compositions and intimate depictions of everyday life.

A recipient of the 2019 New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Award and the 2017 Gordon Harris Painting Award, Kogachi continues to expand her practice across mediums, exploring memory, identity, and the fluid boundary between personal narrative and collective experience.

5. Solo Booth Highlights :

Yona Lee, ‘Lamp’, 2023. Courtesy of the artist and Fine Arts, Sydney.

Yona Lee
Known for her sculptural installations that navigate domestic and architectural space, Lee’s work continues to interrogate how bodies move through and inhabit built environments.

Lisa Reihana, Quills, 2020. Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Sally Dan Cuthbert.

Lisa Reihana, Quills, 2020 (Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert, alongside Marion Borgelt)
A leading figure in contemporary art from Aotearoa, Reihana’s multidisciplinary practice spans film, photography, and digital media, foregrounding Māori perspectives and the complexities of colonial histories. Internationally acclaimed for In Pursuit of Venus [infected]—presented at the Venice Biennale—her work continues to challenge dominant narratives through richly layered, cinematic storytelling.

Judy Millar, Text Of Her Own, 2025. Courtesy of the artist and Michael Lett

Judy Millar (presented by Lett Thomas)
One of New Zealand’s most internationally recognised painters, Millar is celebrated for pushing the boundaries of abstraction. Her work interrogates the relationship between gesture, surface, and perception, often engaging scale and repetition in dynamic ways.

Scott Perkins, Large Lightbox 10, 2026. Courtesy of the artist and Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin.

Scott Perkins (presented by Michael Reid Gallery)
In his latest body of work, Perkins creates an atmospheric space beyond the visible. Working across photo-media, lightboxes, and design elements, his practice merges technical precision with a sculptural sensibility. Using materials such as handmade Japanese washi and metallic Hahnemühle papers, his abstract landscapes amplify the quiet majesty of their subject matter.

Peggy Robinson photographed by by Russell Kleyn.

6. PEG Gallery Presents Three Aotearoa Artists

PEG Gallery presents three artists exploring materiality, domestic space, and the boundary between art and object. Ed Bats works across painting, assemblage, and carpentry, transforming surfaces into structural forms that blur artwork and display. Ben Pyne’s ceramics engage with domestic architecture, while Hannah Valentine creates bronze sculptures inspired by everyday objects—translating intimate references into enduring, tactile forms.

3D printed modular vases made in New Zealand of 100% recycled waste plastic by MODCON.

7. The Wall Real Estate House Party

Blurring the line between art and everyday living, this sector brings together ceramics, design objects, and small-scale works rooted in materiality and craftsmanship. Featuring presentations from Artor Contemporary, Kurutai Collective, Masterworks Gallery, and Season, the focus spans object-based practices grounded in whakapapa and whenua to collaborative ceramics by Māori collectives.

Masterworks marks 40 years of fine craft through works by leading women artists, while Season foregrounds interdisciplinary and underrepresented voices. The result is a tactile, playful, and thoughtful exploration of how art can be lived with—where tradition and innovation sit side by side.

Make the most of your visit

Artist Talks
For those wanting to go beyond the surface, the Artist Talks programme offers a rare opportunity to hear directly from the minds behind the work. At MARS Gallery, Kenny Pittock reflects on his ceramic recreations of discarded shopping lists. Transforming fleeting, everyday moments into something quietly humorous and reflective. Elsewhere, Lissy Robinson-Cole and Rudi Robinson-Cole join Nigel Borell to discuss their vibrant crocheted sculptures, grounded in mātauranga Māori, community, and ancestral knowledge.

Tim Melville and Tendai Mutambu’s focus on Areez Katki’s recent international exhibitions and his evolving interest in experimental storytelling. Together, these conversations offer a more intimate with a layered understanding of contemporary practice.

Guided Tours
If you’re not sure where to start or simply want a more considered way through the fair, guided tours are one of the best-kept secrets. Led by art world insiders including Anita Tótha, Graeme Douglas, Steve Carr, Meijing He, Linda Tyler, Becky Hemus, Matthew Hanson, Caroline Vercoe and Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, each tour offers a different lens, whether that’s curators’ picks under $5,000, advice for first-time collectors, or a deep dive into emerging and Pacific artists.

Running daily at the Viaduct Events Centre and included with your ticket (no booking required), they’re relaxed, accessible, and an easy way to connect more meaningfully with the work on view.

Hot tip : Don’t try to see everything in one go. Start with a tour or talk, let something hold your attention, and follow that thread, you’ll often find the most memorable moments happen slightly off-plan.

Aotearoa Art Fair 2026