Kristin Schnell: Aotearoa Art Fair 2026

Following her celebrated solo exhibition at Michael Reid Berlin, German-born, Baltic Sea-based contemporary photographer Kristin Schnell will exhibit two works in Auckland from her acclaimed Farewell series. This showing extends a growing engagement with Antipodean collectors that feels tied to her choice of subjects; an affinity for our region’s native birdlife has been a touchstone for Schnell’s flights of photographic fancy, as evidenced by the work that saw her shortlisted for the 2025 Head On Photo Awards. “My bird models are originally from Australia. Colonial trade carried their ancestors to Europe,” says Schnell. “With the Head On Festival, they return home – at least visually – and that makes me very happy.”

In the sumptuous, moody photographs of Farewell – awash with a sense of romantic, old-world painterly lushness – the vibrant plumage of Schnell’s birds appears frozen in motion as it dissolves into cascading flowers and a velvety blackness beyond. While the prevailing atmosphere of Farewell is one of luxuriant beauty, Schnell brings conceptual depth into the frame. As her subjects refuse the camera-facing conventions of classical portraiture, appearing in flux and resisting our gaze as they disappear into a floral plane, we are invited to consider their bidding farewell as a parting gesture at a time of ecological collapse.

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