22 October 2026 — 17 January 2027
Karl Fritsch and Gavin Hipkins:
Der Tiefenglanz: Deep Gloss
Artists’ Talk • Thursday 22 October • 4:30 - 5:15PM
Opening Celebration • Thursday 22 October • 5:30 - 7:30PM
Der Tiefenglanz: Deep Gloss is a collaboration between contemporary jeweller Karl Fritsch and photographer Gavin Hipkins which plays on notions of perception.
Der Tiefenglanz: Deep Gloss is a satisfying contradiction. Gloss can only exist on the surface, depth is impossible, but it is through this conflict that meaning can be found.
Der Tiefenglanz (Catherine), 2014. Silver gelatin print, aluminium. 380 x 420mm. Courtesy of the artists and Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington.
This exhibition brings together work from collections from across Aotearoa for a large scale exhibition of Fritsch and Hipkins’ collaborative practice. The Deep Gloss of this work – and its contradictions – are further enforced through the ways in which this collaboration is an independent endeavour for both artists. The jeweller and photographer have been creating art together for over a decade – with Hipkins printing images from his collection of negatives for Fritsch to mount and adorn. The changes made, or the gloss that is added, are more than simply surface decorative flourishes but direct challenges to our perception of creative control, power dynamics, and singular authorship.
The idea that there is no meaning to be found beyond the technical skill and monetary value of both photography and jewellery has been an insidious belief that Fritsch and Hipkins have disrupted in their fields. In this work we see examples of it in the ways in which Hipkins manipulates the process of printing photographs to purposefully distort or solarise the images, while Fritsch subverts the traditional notion of value in jewellery existing simply through the use of precious metals and stones by ‘destroying’ Hipkins’ photographs with them.
The archive is also a critical factor in this work. Both artists mine their archives of images and materials to create the compositions. The archive, as an object and idea, is a place of memory. But an archive is complicated and without context it is a labyrinth. In the use of their own individual hoarded images and materials Fritsch and Hipkins continue to expose contradictions. By combining their archives, they reveal to us that meaning is unstable and subject to change through the whims of time, circumstances, and the intervention of others.
There is humour, violence, beauty and horror in these works. Images are pierced, scratched or adorned with the precious and the profane. This contrast is at the core of this work – they are evidence of both creation and destruction, value and loss. They are pretty/ugly.
This exhibition has been developed by Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History, the artists and Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington.
About the artists
Karl Fritsch
Karl Fritsch is a Pōneke-based artist. He has exhibited extensively nationally and internationally. His rings reference traditional goldsmithing techniques, yet they dramatically reframe their expressive range, making him one of the most influential contemporary jewellery makers.
His work is held in the collections of leading museums and public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, and Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington.
Gavin Hipkins
Gavin Hipkins is an award-winning Tāmaki Makaurau-based artist. He has exhibited widely over the last three decades. His photography and moving image works interrogate how images create meaning through fragmentation and circulation. His work explores the nation state, particularly in colonised countries in an era of re-imagined communities and ideas of social and political utopia. His practice engages film as a cinematic art that blurs conventional genres of essay film, documentary and experimental narrative structures.
His work is included in public collections including the Queensland Art Gallery, the Auckland Art Gallery, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and George Eastman Museum of Photography and Film, New York. He is an Associate Professor at Te Waka Tūhura Elam Fine Arts, the University of Auckland.
Events & Public Programme
Artists’ Talk • Moderated by Sarah McClintock
Thursday 22 October • 4:30 - 5:15PMOpening Celebration
Thursday 22 October • 5:30 - 7:30PM