Exhibitions and Events, Hocken Collections, University of Otago Library

Regular tours at the Hocken

Behind the scenes tours

Every Thursday at 11am (tours are 50 minutes)

Join one of our friendly guides and learn about the Hocken. Check out the amazing materials in our archives, ephemera, maps, music/AV, photographs, pictures and published collections. Bookings not required. Limit of 10 people per tour. Tour starts at Hocken reception.

Current exhibition

The Ogee & Manaia

Saturday 14 March–Saturday 1 August 2026, Hocken Gallery, 90 Anzac Avenue, Central Dunedin

Reece King’s exhibition, The Ogee & Manaia is a generous selection of paintings made while the artist has lived in Ōtepoti Dunedin as the 2025 Frances Hodgkins Fellow at the University of Otago | Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka.

King’s paintings are unashamedly Paintings. They traverse time, layers and ideas, and are vigorous and enigmatic. They don't provide instant answers or meanings; instead, they act as guardians and messengers, watching over you and speaking in riddles to inspire deep and different thinking.

Accompanying his work, King has arranged couches throughout the gallery – from his Frances Hodgkins Fellowship studio and the Hocken – to encourage visitors to slow down, have a seat, look, think, feel, and look some more.

The Ogee & Manaia is a phrase King chose from hundreds of ongoing thoughts about the work, recorded in his studio notebook. An ogee is an S-shaped architectural feature, while a manaia is a spiritual guardian figure. Both forms are curvilinear, and potential relationships between them are visually expressed in the ampersand, ‘&’. The link is key to understanding King's phrase; it expresses ongoing relational processes within the paintings and highlights the interconnectedness of all things.

Reece King grew up in Te Henga on the west coast of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. He holds a Master of Design in Painting (2021) and a Bachelor of Design and Visual Arts (2012) from Unitec. King started Sanc Gallery in Tāmaki Makaurau in 2020. His work has been exhibited at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Anna Miles Gallery (Tāmaki Makaurau), Gallery 9 (Gadigal Sydney), CoCA - Centre of Contemporary Art (Ōtautahi Christchurch), and PEG Gallery (Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington). His paintings are held in the collections of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and MTG Hawke’s Bay Tai Ahuriri. King is represented by Anna Miles Gallery (Tāmaki Makaurau).

Great Hall, acrylic enamel on canvas, 2660 x 7400mm (diptych). Photo: Digital Capture Unit, Hocken Collections.
The Ogee & Manaia installation view featuring (left to right): Fossil, acrylic enamel on canvas, 2660 x 3600mm; Untitled drawing (undulating body in the abyss), acrylic on paper, 950 x 780mm; Smoko, acrylic enamel on canvas, 2900 x 2350mm. Photo: Digital Capture Unit, Hocken Collections.
The Ogee & Manaia installation view featuring (left to right): Can’t help it, pastel, chalk and acrylic on canvas, 670 x 570mm; Consider a spherical cow, acrylic enamel on canvas, 2900 x 2350mm. Photo: Digital Capture Unit, Hocken Collections.
The Ogee & Manaia installation view featuring (left to right): Up up up, acrylic on canvas, 2430 x 1510mm; Astronaut, acrylic enamel on canvas, 2990 x 2350mm. Photo: Digital Capture Unit, Hocken Collections.