In Monochrome, shades of grey create a liminal space for reflection, where artworks are stripped of vivid colour yet remain conceptually vibrant.

Since its genesis in 2005, Elizabeth Thomson’s From the Black and Whites has taken on several configurations. In Monochrome, her ethereal moths form a structure of light and shadow, where individual form and delicate detail become essential to the optical play within the overarching pattern.

Lisa Reihana’s Pelt subverts both the use of colour and the language of desire; the figures are not objects, but subjects - the body in a position of power. Similarly, Yuki Kihara’s Moments of Presence (2024) focuses as much on what isn’t there as what is, reminding us that time is the only constant.

Artworks by Gordon Walters and Ian Scott reflect the legacy of the monochrome in Aotearoa, where identity is inextricably tied to black and white. Modern investigations of motif, rhythm, and repetition are evident in Walters’ Tamaki (1983), while Scott’s Lattice No. 364 (2009) evokes a woven plane; a white garden lattice, a tukutuku panel, or the simplicity of a suburban picket fence.

Neil Dawson’s velvet-black, Reflections – Halos (2017) plays with perception, reflection and illusion, while Lonnie Hutchinson embraces the intense intricacy of form through raw stainless steel, allowing structure to become image in Tilotilo (2024).