Must See at Aotearoa Art Fair 2026
Each year, Aotearoa Art Fair transforms Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland into a gathering point for the region’s most interesting galleries and artists. The 2026 edition feels especially alive, with presentations that move between abstraction and storytelling, material experimentation and questions of place, identity and inheritance. For those navigating the aisles on a tight schedule, these are the booths worth lingering at.
Fox Jensen McCrory
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland & Gadigal Country/Sydney
Abstraction takes many forms in Fox Jensen McCrory’s presentation, and that multiplicity is its strength. Rather than argue for a single position, the booth opens a conversation between seven artists, including Erin Lawlor, Mark Francis and Pip Culbert, whose works test the possibilities of colour, rhythm and surface. Some pieces command attention immediately, while others reveal themselves more slowly. It is a measured and intelligent presentation that invites patience.
Image credit: Lucienne O'Mara, 1.6.2.1, 2026. Courtesy of Fox Jensen McCrory
MARS Gallery
Naarm/Melbourne
MARS arrives with a pulse on the present. In The New Now, the Melbourne gallery brings together artists responding to history, memory and the shifting conditions of contemporary life. Telly Tuita’s portraits reclaim and celebrate Pacific narratives, while Kenny Pittock finds poetry in the ordinary through ceramics based on discarded shopping lists. Tony Lloyd turns to landscape, The Huxleys to joy, and Miranda Hine to the mechanics of memory. Together, the booth feels sharp, generous and alert to the world around it.
Image credit: The Huxleys, The Flower of My Secret, 2026, giclée print on archival paper. Courtesy of MARS Gallery
Nasha Gallery
Gadigal Country/Sydney
There is confidence in a focused presentation, and Nasha Gallery leans into it with new work by rising star Mark Maurangi Carrol. The Sydney-based First Nations Rarotongan artist brings a singular voice to the fair, offering visitors the chance to engage deeply rather than broadly. In a setting filled with spectacle, concentration can be its own drawcard.
Image credit: Mark Maurangi Carrol, Become the warm flowers (kapa rima), 2025. Oil enamel and permanent marker on linen, 275 x 183 cm diptych. Courtesy of Nasha Gallery
PARKER Contemporary
Meanjin/Brisbane
Material is the story here. PARKER Contemporary gathers artists whose practices are grounded in print, paper and process, showing how tactile methods can still surprise in an image-saturated age. Works by Daniel Clifford, Melissa J Harvey, Claudia Husband, Tim Mosely and Alethea Richter shift between landscape and abstraction, but always remain connected to touch, pressure and time. In this AI age the analogue beauty of print feels even more extraordinary.
Image credit: Tim Mosely, Morning Thunder Boowinda Gorge, 2025, Six colour hand cut reductive linocut relief print on hand made Awagami Kozo Paper, 43.2 x 30.3 cm, Paper 48.6 x 32.5 cm. Courtesy of PARKER Contemporary
Tim Melville Gallery
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
Tim Melville’s presentation unfolds in chapters. The opening days belong to Areez Katki, whose embroidered textile panels draw together migration, queerness and cultural memory with a storyteller’s instinct. Later, the booth changes shape to include works by Salome Tanuvasa, Ngahina Hohaia, Nephi Tupaea, Hiria Anderson-Mita and Star Gossage. That evolving format gives the space a sense of movement, while reinforcing the gallery’s long commitment to Māori and Pasifika voices.
Image credit: Maureen Lander, Summer Weather, 2026, pingao, harakeke, muka, 1370mm H x 1370mm W (13 pieces). Courtesy of Tim Melville Gallery
Alcaston Gallery
Naarm/Melbourne
Few booths speak as clearly to continuity across generations. Alcaston places the late Sally Gabori alongside an emerging figure Tania Major and Sean Hill, creating a dialogue carried through colour, lived experience and connection to culture. Gabori’s paintings retain their force, Major’s rising practice brings fresh momentum, and Hill’s works add another register entirely. The result is thoughtful rather than didactic; a dynamic mix of work and artists.
Image credit: Tania Major, Swallowed by the Rainbow,2025. Synthetic polymer paint on linen, 198 x 198cm. Courtesy of Alcaston Gallery
CHALK HORSE
Gadigal Country/Sydney
Land is not a backdrop in CHALK HORSE’s booth; it is an active presence. Michelle Adams draws on community memory and the ongoing effects of colonialism, Oliver Watts reimagines the landscape through layered painterly narratives, and Kauri Hawkins examines history through objects and contemporary Māori experience. Each artist approaches place differently, yet together they form one of the fair’s more resonant conversations.
Image credit: Oliver Watts, The Wombat Hole, 2022, Acrylic on Canvas, 153 x 213cm. Courtesy of CHALK HORSE
Aotearoa Art Fair 2026 runs April 30 to May 3 at Viaduct Events Centre, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
