Colin McCahon

Reflecting on the journey of one of Aotearoa’s most celebrated modernist artists, Gow Langsford is delighted to present a solo exhibition of works by Colin McCahon at our Onehunga flagship gallery. Spanning four decades, with works from 1947 through to the end of his career in the 1980s, the exhibition offers a rich insight into the evolution of his artistic voice and the social, cultural, and personal contexts that shaped his practice. As McCahon stated in his 1972 Survey Exhibition Catalogue: “My painting is almost entirely autobiographical—it tells you where I am at any given time, where I am living and the direction I am pointing in.”
McCahon’s legacy is far-reaching and remains vital in today’s world. His bold integration of text and image, alongside his engagement with existential inquiries, continues to influence contemporary artists in Aotearoa and beyond. This survey exhibition not only celebrates McCahon’s pioneering role in modern art but also explores the enduring relevance of his work. His practice continues to challenge viewers to reflect on the human condition and our relationship with the land, faith, and wider society.

This Must Be the Place is the inaugural exhibition at Gow Langsford’s flagship Onehunga premises. It brings together the work of a diverse range of artists who respond to themes of place, belonging, and cultural legacy. In examining locality in Aotearoa and Oceania through a modern and contemporary lens, This Must Be the Place showcases a diverse range of practices and contextual frameworks from the region.

This exhibition is made up of works from two seminal series by Colin McCahon (1919-1987); The Flight From Egypt, 1980 and Angels and Bed, 1976-1977. Both created toward the end of his painting career, they show a deep engagement with the spiritual and emotional dimension of human experience and evidence a lifetime spent asking questions through painting.

This exhibition celebrates the monochromatic with works by Shane Cotton, Ralph Hotere, Colin McCahon, Richard Killeen and Gordon Walters.

This exhibition brings together a collection of works by this country's most distinguished artists.

To mark the centenary of Colin McCahon’s birth, Gow Langsford Gallery celebrates the preeminent New Zealand modernist with an exhibition of his paintings on loose canvas. Across the Earth: 100 years of Colin McCahon unites a collection of significant paintings that exemplify the artist’s distinctive treatment of the New Zealand landscape, and demonstrates the austere spiritualism endemic to his practice. Focussing on loose canvases of McCahon’s Muriwai period, the exhibition explores the immediacy of raw materials in the works of the giant of New Zealand painting.

Following the success of our recent presentation at Art Basel Hong Kong, this exhibition brings together paintings from several of Colin McCahon’s most formative stages and will reflect the significance of a home-grown artist, whose stature in Australasia can only be compared to the influence that artists such as Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell and Mark Rothko had on American art. Spanning two decades of his career - from 1958 to 1977 - the show documents the scope of the artist’s evolving concerns: the relationship between Maori and the New Zealand landscape, as well as the influence of early settlers and their beliefs on this revered land.

New Zealand Light is a group exhibition which celebrates five of New Zealand's most significant modern artists, Colin McCahon, Gordon Walters, Ralph Hotere, Shane Cotton, and Peter Robinson. The common thread that runs through their respective practices is their masterful ability to convey reflections of light within a largely monochromatic palette. Shadows rise to the surface or fall back between layers of foreground and background, their shifting nature reflecting equally tumultuous periods of political and social upheaval in New Zealand’s cultural history.

Gow Langsford Gallery starts our 2017 calendar with a largely monochromatic painting exhibition. It includes works by Don Binney, Hugo Koha Lindsay, Richard Lewer, Reuben Paterson, Colin McCahon, Max Gimblett and Gordon Walters.

Colin McCahon: Chief of the Canoe is a collection of significant works by Colin McCahon. The title of the exhibition borrows from the eight panelled The Canoe Tainui – an epical work from 1969 and metaphorically instates McCahon as a leader of twentieth century New Zealand art.

Colin McCahon: Chief of the Canoe brings together a grouping of masterworks and includes paintings from the Elias (1959), Visible Mysteries (1968) and Jump (1974) series’ and an early religious work (1947).

In what is now known as the French Bay House in the West Auckland suburb of Titirangi, painter Colin McCahon produced some of his most consequential works. With the shift...

The Spring Catalogue has become an annual tradition at Gow Langsford Gallery. This year the catalogue exhibition boasts a stellar line up of works. Spring Catalogue 2011 brings together significant works from the local secondary market including paintings by Colin McCahon, Don Binney and Ralph Hotere, works by prominent contemporary international artists including Ai Wei Wei, Damien Hirst; shown alongside works from artists in the gallery stable, including Tony Cragg, Bernar Venet, John Pule, Max Gimblett and Judy Millar.