REHU: From the Ashes
Curated by Chantel Matthews
Curated by Chantel Matthews, REHU: From the Ashes is a contemporary ceramics exhibition exploring the vessels through which we hold love, life, memory and legacy.
Bringing together Indigenous and contemporary practitioners from across Aotearoa, the exhibition creates a space for wānanga, reflection and kōrero around what it means to make, create and hold space for the people and whenua we love.
Presented at Te Toi Uku – Crown Lynn Museum, the exhibition occupies a particularly evocative setting within the historic Gardner Bros & Parker downdraught kiln. Built in 1926, the kiln is the last surviving structure from New Lynn's once-thriving brickmaking industry. Its enduring presence offers a fitting backdrop to an exhibition concerned with vessels, transformation and the passage of time.
For an exhibition that navigates en the profound and often confronting subject of mortality, REHU is imbued with a remarkable lightness and generosity.
It is a show that, almost paradoxically, teems with life.
From iridescent glazes and intricate patterns to the considered interplay of ceramics and mixed media, each work offers its own interpretation of the vessel as a site of remembrance, connection and continuity. The works invite us to consider not simply what is lost, but what endures.
The exhibition is held with great sensitivity by independent curator Chantel Matthews, whose stewardship brings a distinctive combination of intellectual curiosity, generosity and warmth.
She has created an exhibition that is as thoughtful as it is beautiful, approaching a complex subject with lightness and grace.
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Exhibition details
REHU: From the Ashes
Te Toi Uku – Crown Lynn Museum
8 Ambrico Place, New Lynn, Auckland
Exhibition dates: 17 October – 21 November 2026
Opening hours: Wednesday–Friday, 10am–4pm; Saturday, 10am–3pm
Participating artists: Baye Riddell, Chantel Matthews, Esther McDonald, Francesca Contaldo, Amanda Billing, Amelia Kahurangi, Michelle Huizinga, James Webster, Dave Austin, Georgia Good, Sutong Zhou, Tristan Marler and Fleur Palmer.