Three upcoming exhibitions exploring multimedia sculptural works, printmaking, and Pacific cultural identity will be shown at the Tauranga Art Gallery next month.

Opening in the first week of August are exhibitions: The Talisman Project: Mia Straka & Roger Kelly, Printmaking: Beyond the Frame and Make Me: Darcell Apelu.

Three exciting new exhibitions including ‘The Talisman Project' (pictured) will be on display at Tauranga Art Gallery this August. Photo: TTP

Created by jeweller Mia Straka and designer/object maker Roger Kelly, The Talisman Project exhibition will be opening in August 1.

This exhibition has been constructed for people to look at, touch, enter, walk through and wear, and explore the notion of a talisman – an object believed to exercise protective power.

'The project is an ongoing collaboration between Mia and Roger, which spans art forms and media in a discussion of values and inter-connectivity,” says the gallery. 'It aims to investigate themes of containment, protection and restriction.

'Finding shared aesthetic, technical and conceptual interests, Mia and Roger decided in 2011 to collaborate and create a series of large-scale works investigating the power of the object.”

The gallery adds: 'By addressing issues of scale, functionality and the relationship between body and object, the works create an interactive and sensory experience for visitors.”

Printmaking: Beyond the Frame. Photo: Supplied

Then opening August 7 will be Printmaking: Beyond the Frame, an exhibition of work by members of the Central Print Council Aotearoa New Zealand and three invited guests – Kate McLean, Alexis Neal and Jeff Thomson.

The title refers to the frame that surrounds a two dimensional work, isolating it from the wall and forming a barrier of protection or decoration. It also refers to the contemporary perception of print.

'Artists who have contributed to Printmaking: Beyond the Frame use printmaking to solve aesthetic questions, explore a technical conundrum, poke fun at art philosophy or simply declare their place in the artistic scheme of things.

The three invited guests were selected on the basis of their innovatory combination of print with materials and processes that are not generally associated with printmaking.

Make Me: Darcell Apelu. Photo: Supplied

Also opening on August 7 will be Make Me: Darcell Apelu, an exhibition which highlights issues around Pacific identity and how that fits within Tauranga as an environment and culture.

The gallery says Darcell Apelu's work explores perceptions of the Pacific body through identification, specifically that of ‘being other' within the social climate of New Zealand and the Pacific.

'Darcell is a mixed medium artist of New Zealand, European, and Niuean decent, raised in Mount Maunganui,” the gallery says. 'Her father is of Niuean decent and her mother is Pakeha.

'Her art practice involves mediums such as moving image, sound, performance and installation. Her practice is informed by her experiences as an Afakasi female.”

Darcell has three performances and a panel discussion planned around this exhibition, starting with a 20 minute performance named Lift on opening night.

For more information visit the tauranga Art Gallery's website at: www.artgallery.org.nz