A picture is a whole world unto itself. Step beyond the frame and see what you find. Background Matters asks what can be revealed when we view the sitter of a portrait in the expanded field of their surroundings. In bringing the background to the fore, this exhibition subverts the hierarchy of subject and setting to consider the portraiture of Aotearoa New Zealand from a fresh vantage point.

Drawn from the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata and other key galleries and collections, these works reveal narratives of belonging, self-expression, creativity and care. Far from an afterthought or decorative embellishment, the settings of these portraits speak not only to the vision of their artists but to the lives lived by their sitters, which extend far beyond the boundary of a frame.

Whether exterior or interior, playful or sincere, familiar or made strange, by bringing the background into focus this exhibition asks us to consider the worlds we inhabit and our places within them.

Curated by Liz Stringer Curatorial Intern 2024, Maddie Brooks Gillespie.