Purposefully designed, Quiet Riverbank Hotel’s interior celebrates the evolution of art in Aotearoa, offering our manuhiri an immersive cultural experience during their stay. Our main areas and rooms have been transformed into exhibition spaces, with art chosen to enhance our contemporary aesthetic.
Quiet Riverbank proudly displays an array of artwork, recognising artists who have made significant contributions to art and education in New Zealand.
In the Hotel Lobby we have a rotating arrangement, with ARTIS Gallery – A contemporary gallery in Parnell, Auckland with a strong exhibition focus, ARTIS represents a diverse range of leading New Zealand artists, many of whom have achieved international acclaim.
John BlackBurn
1932-2022
John Blackburn was a British abstract painter whose work is distinguished by its richly textured surfaces, material experimentation, and emotional intensity. Using layered pigment, wax, and raw, often repurposed materials, he developed a striking visual language that balanced structure and spontaneity.
Blackburn spent a formative decade in New Zealand following his service in the Royal Air Force, producing some of the most radical painting in Auckland during the late 1950s. He was recognised early by Colin McCahon, who selected him for the landmark Ten Auckland Painters exhibition at the Auckland City Art Gallery in 1959. Despite this, his contribution remains largely absent from formal narratives of New Zealand art history. Blackburn returned to England in 1961, where he continued to paint prolifically until 1980. A renewed interest in his practice emerged in the early 2000s when early works acquired by noted British collector Jim Ede (Kettle’s Yard) were rediscovered. This led to significant exhibitions at the Metropole Galleries in 2006 and Osborne Samuel Gallery, London, who represented him until his death.
ARTIS Gallery has represented Blackburn since 2009, presenting annual exhibitions of his work for over sixteen years. Since his passing in 2022, we have continued to work closely with the artist’s family to share his powerful and uncompromising body of work with New Zealand audiences — work that continues to resonate for its raw materiality, lyrical abstraction, and enduring clarity of vision.
