Cindy Huang 黄馨贤 Landings at Gertrude Contemporary; opening Friday 6th February 6pm, artist talk 5pm.

[Andy Butler]

Dear Colleagues,

Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland-based artist Cindy Huang 黄馨贤 is having her first international solo exhibition at Gertrude Contemporary in Narrm/Melbourne, opening this Friday 6th Feb at 6pm, and she will be in conversation with curator Mark Feary at 5pm. It would be lovely to see you there and to welcome Cindy to Australia!

As I'm sure many of you are aware, there's an exciting generation of New Zealand Asian artists coming up who are asking some deep questions about migration to Aotearoa and their complex engtanglements and responsibilities as Tangata Tiriti—people of the treaty. The questions and projects they're bringing together are really sharp, and mirrors many of the questions circulating amongst Asian-Australian artists now regarding migration and First Nations sovereignty. Cindy's been in amongst it doing some great work.

Info below.

Cindy Huang 黄馨贤
Landings
7 February - 21 March 2026
Artist talk: 5pm Friday 6 February, Opening 6pm Friday 6 February.
Gertrude Contemporary
21-31 High Street, Preston South

Cindy Huang 黄馨贤 is an artist whose practice is informed by her lived experience as tauiwi, a New Zealander of Chinese descent, with her research drawing upon the legacies and traditions of both cultures and lands. Her work poetically engages with specific social histories and narratives, as she seeks to explore ideas of manakitanga—exchange, generosity and adjacency.

For her first international solo exhibition, Landings, Huang will present and extend her recent work Tracing a gilded trail (2023-). This expansive, floor-based work comprises some 1000 sculptural elements in glazed porcelain, hand-made and painted by the artist. Dispersed across the entire gallery, these lily flowers explore the relationship of the body to the land. These flowers were supposedly brought by Chinese sojourners working in the Victorian-era gold rushes in Aotearoa New Zealand (prevalent across Australia during similar periods) and often connected with processes of mourning in present day. Through this gesture, the artist evokes what it is for bodies to pass, to be buried within, and connected with land as Tangata Tiriti—people of the treaty.

Alongside this work, Huang is producing a new modular sculptural installation comprising hand-made ceramic tiles embedded with pāua shells, a species of abalone unique to New Zealand and distinct for their multi-coloured interior. Through this work, the artist connects with her family’s small-town fish and chips and Chinese restaurant and takeaway, complicating their connectivity to the lands and waters of New Zealand.

Cindy Huang lives and works in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Selected recent exhibitions include Pleasure Garden, Objectspace, Christchurch (2025); Offering, Hastings Art Gallery, Hastings (2024); Tracing a gilded trail, Sumer, Auckland (2023); Cindy Huang, Te Atamira, Queenstown (2023); Nova, Sumer, Auckland (2023); Twin Cultivation, Satellites, Auckland (2022); A Footnote on New Zealand History, Corban Estate Arts Centre, Auckland (2021); and The Beaglehole’s Problem, Meanwhile, Wellington (2020).