All in Oranjehof

Foxton Opens National ‘Dutch Week’ – With Colourful Art Competition and Plenty of Heritage

The Big Dutch Day Out is a prime event on the Dutch Community’s agenda of annual festivities. And not just for the yummie Gouda cheese, croquettes with Zaanse mustard and salty herring. One of the two highlights of the day will be the opening of the ‘Origins’ Art Exhibition, in the Māpuna Kabinet art gallery. The other, is the official unveiling of a huge 2 metre by 2 metre colourful model of De Heemskerck – the ship that brought Abel Tasman to Aotearoa in 1642.

Colourful Iconic Artist passed away - Days before Major Retrospective Exhibition opening

Leon van den Eijkel: “A Colourful Nation – Kleur Bekennen”


In 1995, Leon van den Eijkel exploded onto the Aotearoa art scene with a brilliant burst of colour – and an exhibition that brought the Dutch influence of Mondriaan’s modernism to New Zealand.

Since then, the works by the Dutch immigrant have featured on the Wellington waterfront with the Urban Trees wind sculpture of colourful squares, the Avalon and Hobsonville sets of three Smiling Windmills, the Waiheke Cross Roads, Totem on the Brick Bay Sculpture Trail, and his gigantic masterpiece Red Cloud Confrontation in the Gibbs Farm Sculpture Park on the Kaipara Harbour.