FLARE Central Pop-Up Gallery
The High Street location was perfect, made available at no cost thanks to the support of 181 High. The exhibition curation by Kophie Su’a Hulsbosch (aka MEEP) was carefully done to ensure an authentic reflection of the graffiti whakapapa of street art; we see this as a key point of difference with many other ‘street art exhibitions’. The collection was diverse and exciting, including emerging, established and headline artists across mediums including painting, printmaking, sculpture, dioramas and photography. In recognition of our Auckland artist being in isolation during the first week of the festival, we extended the gallery hours by a week, ensuring we could also provide a festival experience to this artist and enable further sales.

Guided street art tours by Watch This Space
The free street art tours had excellent uptake and fantastic commentary by Reuben Woods balancing perspectives on the international pop culture phenomenon of stickering/pasting in recognition of SlapCity’s effusive appropriation of neglected walls and city assets; also dived into existing works yielding loads of insights that gave context to the content of the artworks and the professional development of the local artists over the last decade.

Projections at 151 High Street, by Fiksate X Offline Projections
Absolutely stunning, like a hologram, best experienced inside the space, and worthy of further exploration next year in conjunction with a popup hospitality experience.

‘Make Art Not War’ by Dr. Suits X Ghostcat X Dcypher
A late addition to the festival, is a high-impact and playful but serious commentary on the very topical situation of conflict in Ukraine. Our exhibition also included works by a Russian photographer resident in Christchurch reflecting our inclusive solidarity around this issue.

Artist Talks panel discussion
Strong facilitation by Reuben and great engagement by artists resulting in a very interesting and insightful discussion; great feedback to date.