PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Dr Sarah Farrar is a curator and writer based in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland. She is currently the head of the curatorial department at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki where she is responsible for the curatorial, research library and archives, learning and public programmes teams. Sarah's doctoral research examines strategies of curatorial activism in local and international art galleries and museums. For twenty years, she has curated exhibitions and contributed to art publications, including books, catalogues and journal articles, in Aotearoa, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, China and the UK. Sarah's research interests in the complexities and strengths of cross-cultural exchange and collaboration, along with her motivation to see senior women artists duly acknowledged, have drawn her to Robin White's work. Dr Nina Tonga is Curator Contemporary Art at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. She is from the villages of Vaini and Kolofoou in the Kingdom of Tonga and was born and raised in New Zealand. Nina has been involved in a number of writing and curatorial projects in New Zealand and the wider Pacific and was Curator of the Honolulu Biennial 2019. Her exhibitions include Home AKL (2012) at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Tonga i Onopooni (2014) at Pataka Art + Museum, Tivaevae: Out of the Glory Box (2015) and Pacific Sisters: Fashion Activists (2018-2019) at Te Papa. Jill Trevelyan is a Wellington art historian and curator. She is the editor of Toss Woollaston: A Life in Letters (Te Papa Press, 2004) and the co-author of Rita Angus: Live to Paint & Paint to Live (Random House, 2001). Her biography of Peter McLeavey won the book of the year award at the 2014 New Zealand Post Book Awards.
Art News, Autumn 2023, reviewed by Connie Brown. “The book is as expansive as its subject’s practice … an essential text on the artist and the varied environments from which she drew constant inspiration.”; New Zealand Geographic , by Catherine Woulfe; Selected as one of Newsroom’s best illustrated books of 2022 by Steve Braunias.; Art New Zealand, reviewed by Don Abbott. “The show is so compelling that a good proportion of visitors will be inspired to invest in the book of the same name … It will be a wise investment. … Reading the book is as close to a multimedia experience that the printed page can produce.”; The Listener’s Best Books of 2022. “This books is so well designed and constructed that the text and reproductions perfectly convey the complex intertwinings of the artist’s life and art in a clear, compelling way.”; The Burlington Magazine (No. 164, November 2022), reviewed by Mark Stocker. “This handsomely illustrated associated book provides a personal and scholarly record of the artist and her career, interspersed with the responses of curators, scholars, collaborators and friends.”; Newsroom’s Book of the Week, including a review by Andrew Wood of “the year’s best illustrated book”, Steve Braunias on Robin White’s collaboration with Sam Hunt , extracts from Justin Paton on Fish and Chips, Maketu and Robin White on her religious faith .; Newsroom , reviewed by Steve Braunias on the week’s bestselling books (10 June, 2022). “Everyone concerned with this beautiful illustrated book about the life and career of one of our greatest living artists – the three authors, the publisher and their team, and White herself – ought to take a bow. It's a really first-class, luscious book.”; Unity Books , Wellington. “The words in this great big gorgeous book of art are just as good as the pictures, just as clear and bright and accessible.”; RNZ Nine to Noon , reviewed by Anne Else. “One of the most satisfying and beautifully done books about a New Zealand artist that I have ever come across.”; Sunday Star Times feature, by Sarah Catherall.; New Zealand Arts Review , reviewed by John Daly-Peoples. “… greatly expanding the reader’s appreciation of the artist’s work … a beautiful production.”
