Opening night at the 2026 Aotearoa Art Fair and all three floors of the Viaduct Events Centre are packed with artists, collectors and supporters, the energy high as crowds gather in appreciation of the best contemporary art that the region has to offer.
Inside Bergman Gallery’s booth are the colours, shapes, motifs and designs of the Pacific; the glitter of Reuben Paterson’s work, the lush florals and landscapes of Rarotonga from Sylvia Marsters and Joan Gragg, views into the alternate worlds of Tanja McMillan and Andy Leleisi'uao, the woven threads of Alison Leauanae, and the distinct contemporary forms of Fatu Feu’u and Mahiriki Tangaroa’s work.
With 65 galleries, over 200 artists, and representation from 25 countries, the 2026 Aotearoa Art Fair is the largest event in its 21-year history. International galleries have increased from nine in 2025 to 19 in 2026, as well as a record 15 Australian galleries and a visible increase in the presence of artists from across the Pacific.
“Whilst we gather ideas from our sister fairs, I wanted visitors to feel that this fair is unique to Aotearoa and not a copy of the other fairs that Art Assembly own internationally — Māori, Pacific, New Zealand artists and international contemporary practices converge in ways you won’t find anywhere else,” said Sue Waymouth, fair director.
“Having galleries like Bergman Gallery and Galerie Winkler from Tahiti — showing at the fair for the first time — adds enormous depth to what we are building here. Bergman is one of the few commercial galleries in the world with its foundation genuinely rooted in the Pacific. The interest from international curators and collectors in Māori and Pacific art is growing rapidly, and we saw that reflected in who walked through our doors this year. I believe the Aotearoa Art Fair is becoming the defining platform for Indigenous contemporary art in the Pacific — and the world is starting to come to us."
It is a message that Ben Bergman has been promoting for decades, a continued commitment to share contemporary Pacific art with an international audiences, from Aotearoa New Zealand to New York and Venice. This year, Bergman Gallery presented work that again demonstrated the many ways of seeing the world through a Pacific lens.
A pioneering figure in Pacific contemporary art, Fatu Feu'u showed a series of new paintings. Each featured Feu’u’s distinct visual language grounded in fa'a Samoa. Drawing on motifs associated with tatau (tatoo), siapo (barkcloth), ufimata (masks), and lalaga (weaving), his paintings continue to be powerful compositions, rich in symbolism and cultural narrative.
In her artist talk at the art fair, Alison Leauanae spoke of Feu'u’s longstanding significance as a mentor for other Pacific artists; “I want to acknowledge Fatu, through his work here today and the role that he’s played here in Aotearoa New Zealand. He established himself as this amazing Pacific Samoan artist — he paved the way for a lot of us and his work speaks strongly of home and that connection of place.”
Leauanae’s own series, Sa ili ou lava ala (finding my own way), includes designs based on illustrations by her Uncle Iosua To'afa from a 1970s book on Samoan myths and legends. Her work is “a practice of needles and threads and paper”, transitions within each piece in this series marked by a line of gold thread, signifiying transition periods in life, times of demand and growth.
“I’m thinking about layers of people in my journey, connections to family, community, villages and nations, weaving them into my work — the fabric of life and the aspects that get pulled together,” Leauanae explained. “While my works may look simple in pattern from a distance, I encourage you to look closer because I’m thinking about all these things as I’m weaving those threads together.”
Time and again, viewers are drawn to the glitter of Reuben Paterson’s work, and to conversation with the artist himself on opening night. The two large panels of work that are, For as Long as You Want Me, I’m Yours, continue Paterson’s exploration of the Pacific ocean and sky. A black glitter skyscape studded with black pearls and freshwater pearls demarcates Constellation Orion, shining above corals in vibrant shades of pink, yellow, blue, purple and orange, colours that are modelled from photographs of seabed adaptation to global warming. The black pearls were sourced from Bergman & Sons, travelling from Rarotonga to New York where Paterson is based, and then back to the art fair in Aotearoa New Zealand, with the Japanese freshwater pearls sourced from the wider Asia Pacific region.
Tanja McMillan (Misery) presented two new paintings, Prana and The belt of Venus, each named for the feeling that they invoke in the viewer. The works delve further into McMillan’s exploration of femininity, fantasy, and the subversive undercurrents of pop culture. Each canvas is layered with a multitude of worlds underlying what is happening on the surface of the work, visible as “imprints or veils of what was there before.” The belt of Venus speaks of goddesses and femininity, complete with images of swans, unicorns, plant life of mushrooms, vines and florals, growing through and around smiling figures, and what McMillan terms as a “volcano goddess”, a small red figure, bold and fiery.
Each artist, each work, is a powerful display of what Pacific art can be and the opportunities that a new audience can provide.
