Auckland Arts Festival 2023: Light Night @ DEPOT

You don’t want to miss this! Come and join us this Saturday 18 March from 5.30pm onwards, for Light Night – an art evening out with a difference! Featuring a charcoal and eraser drawing workshop with Robyn Penn, a talk with Claire Chamberlain, refreshments generously donated by Toi Toi wines and awesome tunes with the incredible DJ Sezzo! 

This is a perfect opportunity to come and see our March exhibitions: ‘Sentinels’ by Robyn Penn and in collaboration with the Auckland Arts Festival, ‘The Realists,’ a group show featuring multiple artists from Tāmaki Makaurau. 

DEPOT will be especially lit for this amazing evening experience!

EVENT TIMELINE:

5:30 – 6:30 – Robyn Penn Charcoal and Eraser Workshop

6:20 – 7:00 – 40 minute set by DJ Sezzo

7:00 – 7:15 – Welcome & Formalities

7:15 – 7:55 – Claire Chamberlain Talk followed by Q&A

7:55 – 9:00 – Music and networking

Presented in association with the Auckland Arts Festival

Robyn Penn was born in 1973, in South African and lives in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Penn is an artist whose practice includes drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture and film installations. The foci of her work are of the natural world, the elusive nature of time, the sublime and the threat of the Anthropocene. The artist spent one year training in Fine Arts at the University of the Witswatersrand, Johannesburg before receiving an Honours degree in Fine Arts from Ilam, Canterbury University, New Zealand. She also read for a BA in Psychology at the University of the Witswatersrand. Penn is a fellow of the prestigious Ampersand Trust. Her art has been seen internationally in galleries, in solo and group exhibitions, and art fairs since 1999. 

Her first solo exhibition was in Johannesburg in 2009. Penn has collaborated with internationally acclaimed master printmakers Mark Attwood (SA), Jillian Ross (CA), NathiNdlandla (SA), Georgina Berens (SA), screen printmaker Wim Legrand (SA) and Risograph printmaker Candice Ježek (SA).

Claire Chamberlain (MA Art History with Honours, PGDipEd) has taught for Te Tuhi’s Art Today programme since 2018 and has over 20 years’ experience as a secondary teacher of art history. She was co-head of Patrons of NZ at Venice in 2022 and has been a patron herself since 2017. A keen supporter of Aotearoa arts and artists, Claire is passionate about communicating her love of art and art history in an accessible and enjoyable way.

Not only is Sezzo a proud Ngāpuhi DJ, writer, curator, medical student, and spiritually connected to kōtare (kingfishers), but she’s also known to be a booty shaker specialist! Her exploration of what it means to be takatāpui and the magic of the club scene have led her to create the mind-bendingly experimental art club night Precog and found the Māori-Australian art collective Ngāti Kangaru.

Sezzo’s performed at prestigious venues like Palais de Tokyo Galerie (Paris) and events like Dark Mofo and the Falls Festival, sharing the stage with music legends like Cher, Big Freedia, Moor Mother & Black Quantum Futurism, Klein, Le1f, Coolio, and Charli XCX. Starting in Meanjin (Brisbane), Sezzo quickly became a beloved figure in the underground music scene, and as a regular host on 4ZZZ 102.1FM, then creating shockwaves in Naarm (Melbourne), she cemented her place as the High Priestess of the Australian/NZ Underground DJ scene. Now based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa, Sezzo continues to push boundaries with her brilliant mind, heart for healing, irrepressible energy, and booty-shaking moves!