Here’s a couple of exhib­i­tions with open­ings that you’ll want to attend, and one that you really ought to see before it closes.

First up, Page Black­ie Gal­lery (which is a much less geo­graph­ic­ally con­fus­ing name than its pre­vi­ous incarn­a­tion as Tinakori Gal­lery) launches a new exhib­i­tion of Gina Jones’ light works tomor­row night (Tues­day 24th from 5:30pm). Jones’ work will be famil­i­ar to many from her per­man­ent install­a­tion in the gal­lery, and even if the Page Black­ie crowd tends towards an older demo­graph­ic (you could almost hear the old money rust­ling at the recent Max Gimb­lett launch), the open­ings can still be lively affairs: the Masked Bar­fly warns us to get there early and stake out the drinks table.

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The open­ing of Jane Kel­la­han’s Human­kind exhib­i­tion, from which the above image “The Heal­ers” is taken, sounds like it’s aimed at a slightly dif­fer­ent audi­ence. It will fea­ture live music by mem­bers of Phoenix Found­a­tion and Fat Freddy’s Drop, and it’s on at the Wool­store Design Centre (262 Thorndon Quay) from 5:30pm next Wed­nes­day the 2nd of July. If you miss the launch but want to see her work, you’ll have to be quick because it’s only on until the 5th, or if you’re really keen she also runs work­shops.

(more after the jump)

You’ll also have to act fast if you want to catch “The Gal­lery of Helen Hitch­ings”, since it closes this Sunday. It’s actu­ally a gal­lery with­in a gal­lery, since the Museum of Wel­ling­ton City and Sea have partly recre­ated the eponym­ous stu­dio space in an attempt to cap­ture the feel­ing of Wel­ling­ton belatedly wak­ing up to Mod­ern­ism. The Ernst Plis­ch­ke fur­niture, Len Castle pot­tery and Rex Fair­burn fab­rics are all evoc­at­ive of the times, and there’s a wealth of import­ant art works on the walls.

The only slight mis­step is the decision to screen the recre­ated gal­lery off from vis­it­ors, so that one ends up hav­ing to peer at the room and its works through a bar­ri­er of poly­styrene bricks. I can under­stand the secur­ity prob­lems with let­ting the pub­lic run riot around the McCahons and Anguses, but when they repro­duce a quote from Hitch­ings about her desire for an atmo­sphere where “people will want to linger & sit & look at things & keep com­ing” the dis­tan­cing effect is quite incon­gru­ous. Nev­er­the­less, it’s well worth see­ing for its indi­vidu­al selec­tion of key Mod­ern artists and sleek mid-Cen­tury design.