Opening 15 June, Gus Fisher Gallery’s Major Exhibition Derek Jarman: Delphinium Days Confirms Dynamic Public Programme

Including a queer fashion class, creative gardening event, private workshops for rainbow communities, painting classes for kids, and more.

New Zealand’s first-ever exhibition of pioneering artist and gay rights activist Derek Jarman will open at Auckland’s Gus Fisher Gallery on Saturday 15 June with free entry.

Derek Jarman: Delphinium Days will feature a variety of work by Derek Jarman (1942-1994) who was an influential figure in the realms of filmmaking, painting, writing, gardening and more.

A dynamic public programme of events will be delivered alongside the exhibition, sponsored by Burnett Foundation Aotearoa and informed by kōrero with Aotearoa’s LGBTQIA+ communities.

Some of Jarman’s most iconic films will screen at The Capitol Cinema during its international Pride Month film festival in June, including Blue, Caravaggio and The Garden. Dates below.

A queer fashion workshop led by artist and maker Kat Aucamp (Goldi Knitwear/Rogue Aotearoa) on Saturday 13 July at Gus Fisher Gallery will explore self-expression through gender-affirming clothing.

Derek Jarman-inspired painting workshops for kids will run during the July school holidays and artist Sarah Smuts-Kennedy will lead a creative gardening workshop in collaboration with Aaiotanga Trust and its inner-city community space on Saturday 20 July.

There will also be a selection of private workshops for rainbow communities held on several dates.

Events are free and open to all unless specified.

Exhibition Co-Curator and Gus Fisher Gallery Director Lisa Beauchamp says the public programme series aims to help people engage with Jarman’s work both as a creative and as an activist for LGBTQIA+ communities.

“Our public programme offers a variety of access points for engagement with the exhibition, and will also help to raise awareness around key issues currently facing rainbow communities,” she says.

As the first public figure in the UK to publicise his HIV positive status, the exhibition marks 30 years since Derek Jarman’s untimely death to an AIDS related illness at the age of 52.

Derek Jarman: Delphinium Days has been co-developed by Gus Fisher Gallery and City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi and is co-curated by Lisa Beauchamp, Curator of Contemporary Art at Gus Fisher Gallery, Aaron Lister, Senior Curator (Toi) at City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi, and Michael Lett.

The show will be presented at The Dowse Art Museum in partnership with City Gallery Wellington from 28 September, and both the Auckland and Wellington venues will demonstrate the diversity of Jarman’s practice.

Spanning rarely seen paintings, films, photographs and archival material by and about the artist, the exhibition will offer an inspiring, in-depth and affecting view of this celebrated cultural figure whose impact remains profound today.

Find all the public programme and exhibition details at gusfishergallery.auckland.ac.nz

Derek Jarman: Delphinium Days was made possible with the lead support of Tony Kerridge and Micheal Do, with additional support of the City Gallery Wellington Foundation, the Delphinium Days Exhibition Circle, and those who wish to remain anonymous. The Auckland public programme is brought to you by Burnett Foundation Aotearoa with additional support from the Gerrard and Marti Friedlander Charitable Trust, the Sir William & Lady Manchester Charitable Trust and cinema partners, The Capitol Cinema. With thanks to the Keith Collins Will Trust and Amanda Wilkinson, London. Films courtesy of LUMA Foundation and James Mackay.

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