If you’ve walked past Auckland Art Gallery in the last year and a half, you will have seen Reuben Paterson’s huge, transparent waka in the gallery’s forecourt pool. Suspended vertically, it rises 10 metres straight up into the sky, a sculpture made of 595 crystals. It is iridescent, impactful and intriguing – three words that could also describe the works in Paterson’s new exhibition at City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi.

The Only Dream Left opens tomorrow, February 25, and is the third-generation contemporary Māori artist’s largest exhibition to date. Among the works, there are new creations as well as lauded and lesser-known pieces from many of New Zealand’s largest public galleries.

Paterson (who is of Ngāti Rangitihi, Ngāi Tūhoe, Tūhourangi and Scottish descent) loves using glitter, colour and pattern to create mesmerising motifs and striking sculptures. Beneath their kaleidoscopic surfaces, his works often explore deep issues such as the complexities of identity, culture, relationships and history.

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This can be seen at Wellington City Gallery in his famous 16-square-metre canvas Whakapapa: Get Down Upon Your Knees, which blends both traditional kōwhaiwhai (Māori motifs) with paisley patterns – all glittered, of course. It’s hypnotic and symmetrical, and the combination of patterns talks to both Paterson’s Scottish ancestry and the art and craft association of his Ngāti Rangitihi iwi.

Another major work, When the Sun Rises and the Shadows Flee, hangs as part of The Only Dream Left. The 3.5-by-7.3-metre wall hanging came from Dunedin Public Art Gallery’s collection and is made up of shimmering discs intended to look like what Paterson describes as “God-sized” pieces of glitter. Fans are set up to blow straight at the artwork, causing the discs to shift and ripple.

You’ll also see The Golden Bearing, a four-and-a-half-metre-high, gold-glittered tree that’s showing for the first time in Wellington – and the first time in conjunction with Paterson’s other work.

"I believe much of the work I have created over the past 25 years is finally being understood and accepted – perhaps even for the first time,” said Paterson in a statement. "This exhibition has become a space to proclaim my voice, and I am so very excited to be able to share and introduce my artistic journey and the ideas, encounters and experiences that have inspired me over the years."

Reuben Paterson: The Only Dream Left is showing at City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi from February 25 until June 18, 2023.

citygallery.org.nz