Bergman Gallery and Starkwhite are pleased to present pop art and conceptual artist, Billy Apple® in Rarotonga. Billy Apple® is a widely regarded international art presence, his 60 year exhibition history and practice spanning Europe, The United States, Australia, Asia, New Zealand and now, the central Pacific.
Opening Speakers:
Billy Apple®, Artist
John McCormack, Director, Starkwhite, Auckland
At the invitation of Bergman Gallery and with support from his Auckland art dealer, Starkwhite, Billy Apple® presents an exhibition in Rarotonga for the first time. His works are drawn from two of his signature series' - From the Collections and Billy Apple® Friezes.
Billy Apple®’s From the Collection series and Billy Apple® Friezes are conceptual investigations into authorship, branding, and the intersections of art, identity, and commerce. These works function within Apple’s long-standing practice of self-branding, a strategy he initiated in 1962 when he legally changed his name and established himself as an artwork—an ongoing conceptual project that blurred the boundaries between artist and brand, self and commodity.
From the Collection operates as both a text-based portrait of the collector and an institutional marker of their role within the art ecosystem. Through direct engagement and negotiation, Apple customizes these works to reflect the individual’s collecting history and engagement with art, positioning them as both patrons and participants in the conceptual framing of his practice. These works challenge the conventional hierarchy between artist, collector, and artwork, offering a transactional yet deeply personalized dialogue on ownership and value.
In Billy Apple® Friezes, the artist’s signature logo is repeated and fragmented across compositions, reinforcing his lifelong exploration of the artist-as-brand. The sliced apple motif, divided into two halves and a whole, operates as a conceptual timeline, acknowledging past, present, and future—a meditation on Apple’s enduring legacy and the continuity of his self-branded identity.
Both series reaffirm Apple’s commitment to interrogating systems of artistic production and value exchange, positioning his own name and persona as both subject and medium within the larger framework of global contemporary art.
