The dealer gallery has long been a vital part of the arts ecosystem. It provides artists with essential income, and connects buyers with beautiful mahi to adorn their homes and their lives. But, traditionally, the dealer gallery is a structure ultimately rooted in commercialism - its core is formed around fiscal transactions and art-as-commodity.
As we collectively reassess which systems of society serve us and which don’t, which hold power in the hands of some and not others, perhaps it is also time to reassess the role of the dealer art gallery?
Not in a throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater sense, more of a gentle reimagining of its purpose. Does the dealer gallery have to exist primarily to sell work? Or is it possible for the dealer gallery to put sales secondary, and instead prioritise building community and relationships first? These are the questions being raised, and hopefully answered, by Heretaunga’s newest dealer gallery, ĀKINA.
Owned by Sacha van den Berg (Ngāti Kahungunu, Cook Island, Netherlands), ĀKINA means to urge on, encourage and inspire. It’s also the name of the street van den Berg grew up on, just a stone’s throw from the gallery’s new site on Hastings CBD’s Heretaunga St East. This infectiously enthusiastic wahine Māori is hoping that, with ĀKINA, she can create something different in the dealer gallery space, something which challenges the status quo and has community at its heart. She’s energised by imagining a new future for artists and buyers in Heretaunga and beyond - planting a seed of what’s possible, nurturing it and seeing what grows.
There’s a saying in te ao Māori, “kei a koe te tikanga”, which loosely translates to “you choose what is right for you”.
This simple phrase underpins van den Berg’s relationships with her artists and provides them with the freedom to decide what their dealer relationship looks like. There are no rules and definitely no one-size-fits-all at ĀKINA. Even their opening show, which spotlights the strength and mana of women, has a man in its line-up. Van den Berg’s first question to artists is always around what their goals are, what they want to achieve. By starting there, she can then build a strong foundation of support for her artists, tailoring her support to help them meet their goals. That might look like working within the gallery to reduce common barriers to access and inclusion, it might be additional support with social media or it could be help with funding and award applications.
Van den Berg brings her full identity and whakapapa to her business. What makes ĀKINA feel different from the outset is that every decision made is a Te Ao Māori decision. Even with the walls bare, your senses will alight with the warmth and mauri that comes from true manaaki, knowing the mana of every person in the space, whether they’re an artist, buyer or supporter, regardless of background or how much they might have to spend, is being truly honoured and respected. Van den Berg also honours the mauri of each work, holding them in her space with the same level of care and attention she gives you. These are not just objects to be purchased - they bring an energy with them which is embraced and enhanced within the gallery’s four walls.
When asked about her opening show, the first thing van den Berg says is that she has been guided by her tūpuna.
She says it is a reflection of the journey she has been on in creating ĀKINA - it’s the culmination of a lifetime of relationships built, combined with the future she’s creating for the arts ecosystem in Heretaunga.
It’s an approach to curation which makes sense when whakawhanaungatanga underpins her kaupapa - ĀKINA is setting out to build long-term, reciprocal relationships with her artists and buyers which are focused on more than just fiscal outcomes. It’s about contributing to a healthy arts ecosystem in Te Matau-a-Māui, which means she also aims to build relationships between artists and their audience - where that aligns with the tikanga of the artist
So what is showing at ĀKINA when it opens its doors for the first time on July 14. The special guest of the opening show is Tapu Tinana, by Nephi Tupaea. A work which was first shown with Pacific Sisters, an ever-evolving collective of artists who come together to create art, music, fashion, and film and who once described themselves as the Polynesian version of Andy Warhol’s factory, Tapu Tinana was previously shown at Auckland Art Gallery.
A stunning indigenous wahine, dressed vibrantly in bright colour, Tapu Tinana is both bold and gentle, an incredibly warm welcome into the space. She demands attention and uplifts the spirits in a way we all so desperately need after the last few years.
Joining Tupaea is Purewa MacGregor, a very driven weaver with incredibly high standards for both herself and her work. An artist van den Berg describes as having “been born knowing how to weave, it’s in her - she couldn’t not weave”, the body of work in the show was part of a research wānanga, where oil from the blubber of a beached sperm whale was used to preserve the weaving, in line with early Māori practices. It’s been a labour of love for MacGregor, with the works in the show taking over 12 months to complete, including a carved hue collaboration with carver Phil Belcher, who grew the hue himself.
Alongside these two, Kezia Whakamoe brings an undeniably strong, unapologetic voice to the show. Not afraid to challenge, the system or her viewers, her works are multimedia vulvic sculptures, which are both a reclamation of the sexual sovereignty and a recollection of the divine power from which we come. Named for the first tangata wahine, Hineahuone, who was formed from soil at Kurawaka, these ātaahua works draw you in and hold your attention, speaking directly from the artist’s wairua to your own.
Balancing out Whakamoe’s bold statement is a quiet force in the show, Asaki Kajima. Kajima creates multimedia abstract sculptural forms which are not only fastidiously created but call to mind the physical humanity which connects us all. Are these works cells? Are they organs? Are they something else? Kei a koe te tikanga, dear viewer. These works are deeply meaningful for the maker and deeply interpretable for the audience. Pure, abstract delight.
Darryl Thomson is the fifth “wahine” in the show… and while that may seem an odd statement, once he knew the kaupapa of the show, Thomson insisted on submitting a series of bold portraits of his wife, Kirsty. Not all Thomson’s works are for sale, but as an artist, Thomson is uncompromising and he has set his tikanga - honouring women and his own work. An injection of colour, through abstract portraiture, Thomson’s work honours and highlights the power and uniqueness of women as much as the other artists included.
However, this show is not just about artists. After all, an ecosystem without an audience can’t thrive, whether you’re selling work or not. And the wellbeing benefits of art belong to everyone, whether you can afford to buy the work or not. This is a show which is both perfectly balanced and perfectly welcoming. It’s literally a party and everyone is invited. Van den Berg herself says that making people feel good about themselves, helping them see what’s possible and encouraging them to achieve that, is the greatest gift she can give someone, and that includes everyone who steps through her doors. It’s partly why she’s made a conscious decision to hero artists who may have been marginalised by the arts industry in the past - because showing their work, their journeys, will no doubt have impactful flow-on effects for those who’ve experienced similar within our community.
ĀKINA’s first show is bright, vibrant and demands attention. The individual cultural reclamation of the artists at ĀKINA will, in time, become community-wide cultural reclamation, which nourishes and heals. There are moments of quiet contemplation and moments of pure joy, which collectively, along with ĀKINA’s overall kaupapa, start one hell of a conversation.
— Essay by Rosie Dawson-Hewes