This picture is the view from my desk, taken in April 2021, while installing the inaugural show at Coastal Signs, our new gallery on Anzac Avenue in Tāmaki Makaurau. 

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The crouched figure is artist Ammon Ngakuru, drinking a beer and unwrapping a painting. The ring light in the foreground is part of a sculpture called Lentil, from his exhibition at Enjoy in 2020.

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Coastal Signs explores a new model for a commercial gallery. It is set up as an informal co-operative with decisions about the programme and profit shared by the contributing artists.

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I had several potential names floating around, but when I found this building, on the edge of the original shoreline, Coastal Signs made sense.

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From the east-facing windows at 90 Anzac Ave I look over some of the best and worst of Tāmaki Makaurau. I can see a glimpse of the harbour, Beach Rd office blocks, Spark Arena – as well as Te Taou memorial gardens and the old city railway station. 

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It’s hard to avoid thinking about property in central Auckland; who owns it, who used to own it, and who is excluded from owning it. With this view of the grandiose railway building, I often find myself thinking about the 1990s in particular: state-owned assets bought for a buck and sold for two, and other economic calamities that shaped our urban and social landscape.

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Coastal Signs
90 Anzac Ave, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
coastal-signs.net