Michael Lett is a gallery dealing in contemporary art that operates in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

, New Zealand. The gallery was established by Michael Lett in 2003 and since 2015 he has been joined by co-director and part owner Andrew Thomas.

History

Michael Lett opened his eponymous gallery in a ground floor space on the corner of

Karangahape Road Karangahape Road (commonly known as K' Road) is one of the main streets in the Auckland CBD, central business district (CBD) of Auckland, New Zealand. The massive expansion of motorways through the nearby inner city area – and subsequent flig ...

and Edinburgh Street, Auckland in 2003. Lett had previously worked for art dealers Anna Bibby and

Sue Crockford Susan Rosalind Crockford (20 February 1943 – 29 June 2019) was a British film maker and activist. Life Crockford was born in 1943 in the London Borough of Croydon. She was the first child of Patricia Maud (born Mead) and Herbert Edward Crockfor ...

and was with the

Gow Langsford Gallery Gow Langsford Gallery is a commercial art gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. The gallery was established in 1987 by John Gow and Gary Langsford. Gow Langsford represents many significant New Zealand and international artists, including Max Gim ...

when he decided to open his own business. The gallery was initially founded in partnership with the artist

Michael Parekōwhai Michael Te Rakato Parekōwhai (born 1968) is a New Zealand sculptor and a professor at the University of Auckland's Elam School of Fine Arts. He is of Ngāriki Rotoawe and Ngāti Whakarongo descent and his mother is . Parekōwhai was awarded an ...

and opened with ''Dive'' an exhibition by

Steve Carr Steven Harold Carr (born April 7, 1965) is an American film director, music video director, and film producer from Brooklyn, New York. After studying fine arts on a full scholarship to Manhattan’s School of Visual Arts, Carr founded design ...

''.'' The second exhibition ''Views of Space'' with the Australian artist

Hany Armanious Hany Armanious (born 1962) is an Egyptian born, Australian artist who lives and works in Sydney. Armanious produces installations and sculptural forms, as well as paintings and drawings. Life and work Hany Armanious was born in Ismailia, Egypt ...

gave some indication of the breadth of artists Lett intended to pursue. From 2008 to 2011 Lett was assisted by Sarah Hopkinson who has described Michael Lett as a place to see, ‘…serious exhibitions by serious artists.’ Hopkinson, after leaving Michael Lett would go on to develop her own gallery presence in Auckland, at Costal Signs. Lett has attracted other assistants who have gone on to make their own mark in the visual arts including Ryan Moore now director of his own gallery Fine Arts Sydney and Becky Hemus editor of ''Art News'' and ''The Art Paper.'' Michael Lett remained on Karangahape Road until 2011 when it moved to a large space on the Great North Road. Art critic John Hurrell described the first exhibition ''trans-cryption'' by the artist collective et al. ''as, ‘''an exciting exhibition to explore….’ and ‘a useful way of getting acquainted with Lett’s new space’. Andrew Thomas, who had previously worked with Hamish McKay in Wellington and

White Cube White Cube is a contemporary art gallery founded by Jay Jopling in London in 1993. The gallery has two branches in London: White Cube Mason's Yard in central London and White Cube Bermondsey in South East London; White Cube Hong Kong, in Centra ...

in London, joined the gallery and later becomes partner and co-owner. The increased space allowed the gallery to offer artists the opportunity to show large scale works and installations not possible in the more restricted Karangahape Road site for example the combined exhibition of Michael Parekōwhai and et al. in collaboration with Anya Henis and Samuel Holloway in 2013 and Michael Stevenson’s installation ''Proof of the Devil'' in 2013. The gallery returned to Karangahape Road in 2014 siting itself on the bottom floor of an old bank building on the corner of East Street. HewsonM

East Street

In 2022 the gallery took over a hall next door to use as a project space. The Methodist Mission Hall had been opened in 1909 and designed by Alexander Wiseman. Early projects have included a recreation of Jim Allen’s performance ''Poetry for Chainsaws'', Michael Stevenson’s installation ''Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop, Seating Proposal for a Grant Maker,'' and Kate Newby's installation ''Had Us Running With You''.

Artists

The current list of artists (2024) represented by Michael Lett are:

Exhibitions

From the last show of its first year of operation, Michael Parekōwhai’s ''Kapa Haka'', five life-sized figures posing as security guards in the gallery’s street facing window, to et al.’s 2023 installation ''I am the Direct Source of Truth'' that introduced itself with a waste paper bin full of bulldog clips Michael Lett has also demonstrated a strong interest in representing a wide range of work by important contemporary artists. The gallery has also shown an interest in promoting recent art history and first showed work by Jim Allen the influential teacher and artist within three years of opening. Since that time Lett has regularly featured Allen who was 83 when he first performed at the gallery. The work exhibited was a re-creation by Allen of his performance piece ''Poetry for Chainsaws'' that was first shown in 1976 at the

Experimental Art Foundation ACE Open (Adelaide Contemporary Experimental) is a contemporary visual art organisation based in Adelaide, South Australia, established in 2017 after the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia and the Australian Experimental Art Foundation ( ...

in Adelaide, Australia. Since then Allen performed and exhibited a mix of recreated and new works until his death in 2023. More recently the work of Pauline Rhodes has also become a regular part of the Michael Lett programme.

Selected exhibitions

* Martin Creed ''Work No 329: Half the air in a given space''. (2006)

Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award). ...

winning artist Martin Creed half-filled Michael Lett’s original Karangahape Road space with pink balloons. * ''Simon Denny: Starting from behind.'' (2009) * ''Hany Armanious: Set Down''. (2013) * Michael Stevenson ''Proof of the Devil. (2013)'' * ''Implicated and Immune''. (2013) Group show. * ''Julian Dashper again and again, again. (2016)'' A re-creation of an exhibition initially curated by Mark Kirby and Julian Dashper. In 2006 for Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History. * ''Living with Aids 1988 . (2018) by Fiona Clark.'' * ''Giovanni Intra''. (2018) Documentation from Intra’s archives and a selection of artworks had Alex Davidson comment in the magazine Artforum, ‘… these material products of his early thought do offer new insights into the bearing of his life’s work, and as such it is significant that they are seen here together for the first time.‘ * Ian Scott ''Realist Paintings from the Late 1960s.'' (2019) Scott died in 2013 and this exhibition brought together a review of his early work. * D''ouglas Wright'''': the Envoys''. (2020)

Controversy

In 2022, artist Matthew Griffin threw a pickle up at the ceiling of the gallery where it stayed stuck as part of an art installation. This was reported in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

'', ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' and NBC News Today.{{Cite news , last=Lamour , first=Joseph , date=2 August 2022 , title=An artist threw the pickle from a McDonald's burger on a ceiling — and is charging $6,325 for it , url=https://www.today.com/food/news/mcdonalds-pickle-ceiling-artwork-rcna40931 , access-date=18 January 2024 , work=NBC Today

Selected Michael Lett publications

* ''Michael Parekōwhai'' (2007) * ''The Estate of L Budd: Catalogue of Existent Works'' ( 2008) * ''Jim Allen Poetry for Chainsaws & Hanging by a Thread II'' (2009) * ''Julian Dashper: This is not Writing'' (2011) * ''Affirmation Dungeon, by Dan Arps'' (2012) with Clouds Publishing * Anthony Byrt ''Simon Denny: The Founder's Paradox a Compendium'' (2017) * ''Fiona Clark:'' ''Living with Aids 1988'' (2018) * ''Imogen Taylor'' (2022) * ''Michael Lett Documents 2021–2023'' (2023)

External links

Official websit
www.michaellett.com

References

Art gallery owners Art dealers Art museums and galleries established in 2003 Art museums and galleries in Auckland New Zealand art dealers