Sponsorship announced for Lisa Reihana exhibition at 2017 Venice Biennale

Allpress Espresso has confirmed it will sponsor New Zealand’s presentation by Lisa Reihana at the 2017 Venice Art Biennale.

With roasteries in Auckland, Dunedin, Sydney, Melbourne, London and Tokyo, Allpress has a global reach and sees support for the exhibition as a natural fit for the company.

Founder Michael Allpress says, “By its very nature the arts goes hand-in-hand with the coffee community. We have sponsored the arts in different ways over the years, including supporting artists through our studio artists’ spaces in both Auckland and Melbourne.”

He says, “Art and its inventiveness, and the inspiration and discussion it informs, has been close to Allpress for a long time, without this connection being fully recognised by our larger community. We are very excited to partner with New Zealand at Venice to take this awareness to a new level.”

Lisa Reihana’s exhibition, Emissaries, will showcase New Zealand contemporary art in 2017 at the Venice Biennale, the premier international arts and culture event since 1895. The New Zealand pavilion will be housed in the Tesa dell’Isolotto, one of the oldest buildings in the Arsenale, among many permanent national pavilions. It will include Reihana’s panoramic video in Pursuit of Venus [infected], expanded and augmented with a series of new photographic works.

Allpress will join the project as a supporting partner in addition to being a hospitality partner for opening events for the New Zealand exhibition in Venice. Meanwhile, the company will host a series of conversations about Lisa’s work; celebrating the value of artists within their local communities. The first will take place at the Dalston Roastery in London on 5 October with Lisa Reihana and Rhana Devenport, Curator of Emissaries. Other events in Allpress roasteries in Australia (Melbourne) and New Zealand (Auckland) will follow.

New Zealand at Venice Commissioner, Alastair Carruthers, says, “Sponsors of art are hard to find these days, but when an agreement like this is reached, the benefits for all parties quickly become evident. Allpress is an adventurous, smart and international company – a great fit with Lisa Reihana – and its support for Emissaries will make a tremendous difference.”