Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Review

World famous - well, almost. Great little gallery featuring some great art in a stunning building

Beautiful outside and in. Guide was great and super informative!

Interesting place, essential to be with a gallery guide. The works would be meaningless without them being set in motion.

We visited this beautiful building in December 2016. Impressive! A huge building, expensive, stylish, modern. But for an amateur ... One of the exhibits is a circle from a tape of a reel tape recorder (remember those ?!), which is held on the wall due to the air flow from a conventional floor fan. You can watch for hours ... everything else is in the same vein. New Zealand can afford the contents of such a gallery. But you can visit to have an idea of contemporary art. Visitors roam with a smart look!

Awesome gallery. Absolutely world class. Very proud to have this in New Zealand. Awesome guides and gallery staff as well.

It was being done up at the time we could only see the entrance way to the big bubble things and the big Christmas decoration, as well one of the ladies Nicki was lovely helped us out and signed to Tim as well and know Tim hearing dog Billy and it was excellent service as well,

Beautiful building and inspiring artwork exhibitions.

Been so looking forward to seeing this and it didn't disappoint. Inside and outside its mesmerizing. Well worth the trip and visit.

Travelled up from Wellington to see this gallery and the Len Lye works. From the outside it is fantastic. Inside it was a disappointment. I had expected to see more than just the 3 Lye sculptures on display.
The staff were very helpful and friendly but to come all the way from Wellington and stay the night just to see 3 pieces and pay $15 felt like a rip off. The rest of the gallery was taken up with another artist from Korea who had a load of Venetian blinds, chairs and some odd fluffy stuff for which there was no explanation.
How about putting a few more of the Len Lye works into it. After all it is the Len Lye centre.

It is a pretty cool building from the outside. Felt like they didn't have enough exhibits on the inside.

Because of the Len Lye work that are displayed at different times, sometimes there are some good displays other times they aren't.

Beautiful gallery with very interesting work. Recommend a stop there on a rainy day or when you feel like some art.

Awesome experience, cute gift shop, stunning building, inside and out.

Great building, curator tour interesting, but the art really doesn't float my boat, and the art offerings were sparce and rather boring.

Awesome building and very interesting pieces of art. Got through it all pretty quick so would be cool to have some more pieces to engage us for a bit longer.

Ok for free. There were some nice painting around. Got a good laugh at of the blade exhibition. The only other piece of "art" on display some was letter tapped to the wall.

Interesting architecture and museum. Well worth the visit.

Was a little underwhelmed. Had previously seen an incredible Len Lye exhibition that I felt needed several days to do justice. Sadly wasn't the same this time.

Quite disappointed
A lot of empty spaces

Incredible building and incredible exhibits definitely a highlight of any visit to New Plymouth.

Interesting architecture and great exhibitions in the gallery! Worth spending time there.

Poorly curated collection of late 20th Century New Zealand artist's work. Not particularly helpful staff. Unlike most contemporary international art galleries, no commentary, no context and no explanation provided for any of the work. Very cluttered displays. A good case for where less on display would lead to a better experience for visitors for an otherwise outstanding building.

Beautiful building on the outside, but alas the contents were a disappointment. Having to refer to a map in a book to refer to the artworks was a huge turnoff. Staff of which there were many were helpful, but having at least a number next to each artwork would make the experience much better. Having more than 2 artworks on display from Len Lye in the "len lye" Centre would be a good idea too.

The building itself is the reason i visit the gallery, it blows me away every time......the exhibitions are just a bonus!

Fascinating building inside and out; helpful and informative staff too, not so sure about the exhibits....

Very helpful and knowledgable staff fora fascinating exhibition.

My first time there. I was pleasantly surprised. The staff were knowledgeable and helpful. I'd certainly go back. A helpful hint, if you're local, take your library card for proof that you're a local, otherwise there's a charge.

Well worth a visit, although there was less in the way of Len Lye art than I expected. Magnificent building.

Quite disappointing. Not worth the trip. Building was mostly empty.

Awesome exhibit. Very cool kinetic art was not expecting it in new Plymouth.

A fabulous contemporary Art Gallery, considered to be the top contemporary gallery in New Zealand.
Adjoining it is The Len Lye Centre which houses the main body of his Kinetic Sculptures and Films.

First time to an Art Gallery. Staff were very helpful at entry. Very flash inside, everything well laid out. Depends on what is showing but the history of Taranaki and Len Lye exhibition were informative.

The building itself is worth visiting! The art inside and outside is fabulous! World Class!!

Looks great from the outside. I think they need to add more artwork on the inside. Feels really empty.

Was very disappointed. Only three Len Lye sculptures. Large yet hard-to-find spaces filled with very little.

A lot of empty or closed gallery space. Also only one sculpture exhibit. No len lye works on display.

Brett Graham exhibition at Govett Brewster is extraordinary! Loved it.

beautiful architectural structure. service from staff was amazing, very friendly and very informative. great place to pop in if you're visiting New Plymouth.

Great display of a creative genius. A must visit. Very informative section on the history of New Plymouth.

One of landmarks in New Plymouth, it's worthy to go

Your catalogue is a total stuff up. Get your printer going ASAP and blue tack some artist/descriptions up now.

Really cool displays, great building. Talk to the staff to either get them to start the displays, or tell you when they start next. Well worth it.

This was amazing the staff amazing. They charge you if you are not a local to see the art work but if you just want to look at the other stuff it's free. The kids got to do hands on art work and they have a little movie theater that the kids will like. Very good way to spend 2 hours. If the weather is not good

Interesting with very helpful staff who were more than happy to share their knowledge.

The mirror looking building outside is the coolest part. Don t bother to go in.. not much going on right now

Superb Andrew Patterson design of gallery extension was worth the visit and I also found the internal display spaces intriguing. Entry price - though waived for locals - was way too high given the unremarkable exhibitions, and the Len Lye theatre was closed the day we visited. I would prefer the gallery did its best to attract visitors from elsewhere, rather than to price-gouge us.

I'm not an arty person, but thought I'd check it out. The staff were awesome, the displays were mind blowing. This is an awesome asset to NP, take your time and interact with the displays and you won't be disappointed !

Great place. Though it's really for the artist-at-heart :)

Building is spectacular inside and out the displays are sparce could be more to see especially kinetic art

Can't believe they charge $15 for such a small gallery, reviews are really misleading

Stunning building. Disappointed with the exhibition . May go again another time. Worth at least one visit.

Brilliant space. Can t help but push your creative mental boundaries once you enter. Very much worth everyone s while to visit.

Great gallery jam-packed with quality contemporary art. Family friendly and the staff were very welcoming to our son, helping him engage with art. Trilogy sculpture is really powerful and worth the visit alone.

Love the architecture but the gallery it's self is under utilised and no longer displays great collections of art. It's all the same tired old Len Lye movies and kenetic sculptures. My children felt really uninprised!

Love the buildings architecture and the exhibits were really interesting. However, the treatment we got from staff is the reason for the 1 star review. We were approached multiple times by a staff member about whether the photos we were taking were for commercial use or not. I read the photography policy prior to arriving & it stated photos for personal use were okay. However this staff member refused to believe the photos were for personal use only and seemed pretty insistent that we needed to fill out the commercial photography consent form, obtain gallery & artist consent, schedule a time & pay fees. We ended up feeling so harrased & unwelcome by this staff member we cut our visit to the gallery short and left. Gallery staff need to be educated on what exactly commercial photography is, and have the decency & respect to believe a patron when they say their photos are for personal use only rather than to assume they are lying.
Overall our experience with the gallery has been rather unpleasant.

Maybe the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery takes itself a little too seriously for my liking. But the work inside is quite interesting for the most part. Some things I wondered about the cultural value, but that's art for you. Also the audio on the video piece wasn't loud enough, even when I was right next to the speaker. Ux is crucial here. Overall pretty good. Looks bigger from the outside. $15 entry for non residents.