Regina Pilawuk Wilson: Aotearoa Art Fair 2026

In New Zealand, Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin will present a spectacular new suite of works by acclaimed Ngan’gikurrungurr artist, cultural leader and master weaver Regina Pilawuk Wilson. The Cultural Director at Durrmu Arts, co-founder of the Peppimenarti Community and a seminal figure in the story of Australian First Nations art, Wilson has been a fixture on the global art scene for almost three decades, with her works held in the collections of the British Museum and LACMA, alongside almost every major institution Australia-wide. Most recently a finalist in the 2025 Sir John Sulman Prize, she has received a succession of accolades since her defining win at the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in 2003.

In Auckland, Wilson will show a new series of syaw (fish net) paintings, which channel her mastery of a generations-spanning weaving tradition into canvases soaked in colour and alive with rhythmic, reverberating movement that unspools from a central axis in ribboning, linear strokes. “My grandfather, before European contact, used to make fish traps to put in the rivers and billabongs,” says Wilson, whose presence at the fair follows her showing in Washington, D.C., where she was received by then-Ambassador to the United States, Dr Kevin Rudd AC. “My sister said for me to put the design onto the canvas so I can tell the story.” By placing her epic canvases in dialogue with her woven work, our art fair exhibition draws together two strands of her practice, connecting the sinuous linework of her paintings to the weaving that informs them.

For acquisition enquiries please contact tobymeagher@michaelreid.com.au