Elisabeth Easther has found some stellar ways to observe Matariki this year.

Everything from slice-of-life realism through to surrealistic flights of fancy are on display in the second week of the Short+Sweet Festival.

Funded by the European Union to the tune of $140 million, a deft bit of reinvention has turned France's drug and crime epicentre into the nation's Capital of Culture. Jenna Hand goes along for the ride.

Tauranga Art Gallery has come under fire for displaying two photos that feature coarsely worded messages scrawled in ballpoint beside images of a 1974 gay liberation dance.

The memories have come flooding back for three Korean War veterans before the opening of a special photo exhibition that features 150 images taken by Kiwi soldiers.

My happy place is out in the wilderness taking photos. I find it completely engrossing.

Bill Culbert, New Zealand's artist for the 2013 Venice Biennale.

The layered, colourful and feminine works of artist Emma Wright represent the "unpredictability" of life.

A spiritual home is slowly taking shape on a Northland coastal block in the hands of a Maori sculptor and his wife.

My happy place is my conservation studio at the Auckland Art Gallery.

Known for his evocative and nostalgic portrayal of everyday life, photographer Derek Henderson's third book examines the human form.

Three Asian artists draw on their heritage to create contemporary works with meaning.

Have beauty pageants lost their allure?