Image: Dunedin Public Art Gallery
Dunedin Public Art Gallery has opened 'Staying Power', an exhibition drawing on works from its collection by Angela Tiatia, John Vea and Kalisolaite ‘Uhila. Running from 2 May to 13 September 2026, the show brings together a focused group of works that use performance, video and moving-image forms to consider endurance, labour, value, exchange and impact.
The gallery describes the exhibition as a presentation of significant works by the three Moana Pacific artists, each of whom studied art in Aotearoa New Zealand and attended Auckland University of Technology. In the exhibition text, the works are positioned as ways to think about Pacific lives in Aotearoa New Zealand and beyond, while also opening out to international contexts and broader systems that shape contemporary life.
According to the gallery, performance is central to all three artists’ practices, with the body and movement used to explore ideas of endurance and the structures that govern work and circulation. The exhibition text links these concerns to global issues including climate change and migrant labour conditions, framing the works as part of a wider consideration of how systems of labour and exchange affect everyday experience. The artists represented include Tiatia, whose work 'Holding on' is included in the installation, Vea with 'Concrete is as concrete doesn’t', and ‘Uhila with 'Kapa Mā'.
'Staying Power' also includes a community project developed in collaboration with the Ōtepoti Pasifika Arts Collective, or ŌPAC. The gallery says this element is intended to create a comfortable space for conversation and exchange, building on community relationships that have been developing over time. The newsletter from the gallery also notes that the short film 'I May Choose To Be Who I Am Not' (2024), created by Ōtepoti Pasifika Arts Collective, has been placed on display within the exhibition.
That film focuses on local social justice activist Mere Meanata Montgomery, who the newsletter says many people will recognise from Robin White’s 1978 screenprint 'Mere and Siulolovao, Otago Peninsula'. The same newsletter notes that 1 August 2026 marked five years since the New Zealand Government issued a formal apology to Pacific communities for the Dawn Raids, and situates Montgomery in relation to anti-raids activism and the Polynesian Panthers. The film is available to view within 'Staying Power' until 13 September.
The exhibition sits within Dunedin Public Art Gallery’s wider 2026 programme, which includes several concurrent and upcoming presentations across the venue. For 'Staying Power', however, the gallery’s focus is squarely on the collected works of Tiatia, Vea and ‘Uhila, and on the community exchange developed with ŌPAC. The exhibition remains on view at Dunedin Public Art Gallery in Dunedin, New Zealand, until 13 September 2026.
