Three walls of paintings, Bergman Gallery at the Aotearoa Art Fair was a multiplicity of colours, forms, practices and voices that told stories from across the Pacific region, writes Rachel Smith.

This year’s art fair in Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau was the first to be held at the Viaduct Events Centre under new ownership of The Art Assembly, organisers of international art fairs including Sydney Contemporary. The new location brought with it new energy, a hum of excitement at the opening night on Thursday, April 18, as crowds arrived to view works shown by the 35 galleries at the fair.

Bergman Gallery returned with a diverse group show of 11 painters, featuring five established women artists – Mahiriki Tangaroa, Sylvia Marsters, Tanja McMillan (Misery), Luise Wong and Joan Gragg. They were showing alongside newly represented artists Rhea Maheshwari and Louie Bretaña, art fair debuts from Lucas Grogan and Luke Thurgate, 2024 McCahon House resident artist Benjamin Work, and Telly Tuita fresh from his solo show in Sydney.

Time and again, those visiting the Bergman Gallery booth were drawn to Umukai by Joan Gragg. For five decades Gragg has captured the heart of everyday moments of life in the Cook Islands. Painted in 2005, Umukai depicts a Cook Islands formal island feast, catapulting the viewer directly into the scene – to laugh and eat with anau and friends.

“I’m always looking out for something that’s passing, a moment that will be here and then gone,” says Gragg. “In Umukai, I wanted to show how we weave coconut fronds to show the mark of something special.”

Bergman Gallery Director Ben Bergman with Sarjeant Gallery Direct Andrew Clifford at the Aotearoa Art Fair 18 April 2024. Image courtesy Bergman Gallery/ 24051096

These small moments can also be seen in new works by Sylvia Marsters, where elements of realism blend with concepts of romanticism and perceptions of Pacific fantasy. The paintings are a continuation from her solo show, E Moemoe’a Naku 2, in Rarotonga last year. There are of course flowers, kaute and tiare taina, and now the emergence of people, placing the work distinctly in the Cook Islands.

“I begin with flowers and then play with figures in the background until the right one comes up. Bringing people into the frame, their physical presence, it feels right,” explains Marsters.

Both Marsters and Mahiriki Tangaroa have shown at the art fair since Bergman Gallery first exhibited in 2016.

Of her new series of works, Tangaroa says, “Take a pause, a moment, to listen to the sound of the silent trade winds. And then, the roaring sound of the jet plane. Our beloved families, friends and visitors arrive to our shores as we await. I watch these flights arrive in, every day, and I would think of the heightened excitement and expectation, of paradise. And then the much-anticipated aro’a, meeting up with those who you most fondly care about. The land, ocean and ancestors welcome and embrace you. Tears when you shall depart. Manea Rarotonga.”

Tangaroa’s words were there on the walls, in her paintings baked within lush earth tones, red, orange and yellow ochre, her engaging story debating issues of value and interpretation, place and purpose. 

Luise Fong comes to Bergman Gallery on the back of a long and distinguished career. In the 1990s she developed a distinctive post-modern style, her abstract works noted by their circular and organic motifs. In her most recent blue Nocturne paintings, the forms, materials, processes and colours serve as metaphorical representations of the ideas and emotions invoked by the evocative song Sæglòpur by Sigur Rós.

Fong says, “I try to explore, to use yin and yang energies; brightness with gold and silver leaf – yang/male, and overlaid with blue and circular shapes as a softening element – yin/female.”

Former New Zealand High Commissioner to the Cook Islands, Nick Hurley speaks to Rachel Smith, Bergman Gallery Booth, Aotearoa Art Fair, 18 April, 2024. 24051097

Tanja McMillan joins Fong as a new artist for the gallery, both in group shows last year in Tāmaki Makaurau. Well-known as street artist Misery, McMillan is now painting full-time – “making art from my heart – it’s the best decision I’ve ever made.”

“Her new paintings transport viewers to supernatural realms beyond the constraints of time and space, where hierarchies and protagonist’s dissolve. Each artwork serves as a tribute and mirror to the enchanting tapestry of our natural world, inviting contemplation of our interconnectedness within the universe’s intricate dance,” says Ben Bergman, director of Bergman Gallery.

For Bergman, this year’s art fair continued the gallery’s ambitions to see Pacific artists represented and recognised internationally – work that will no doubt see Bergman Gallery again at the Aotearoa Art Fair in 2025.

In the meantime, there are new shows in the pipeline, with planned solo exhibitions by these women artists at Bergman Gallery’s Tāmaki Makaurau and Rarotonga galleries in this year and the next.

Bergman Gallery gratefully acknowledges sponsors The Bond Store, Zeman & Co - Photo + Film, Palm Grove and Bank South Pacific for their enduring support of Cook Islands and Pacific contemporary art.