Max Gimblett has painted for more than 45 years while living in the Big Apple but is reconnecting with New Zealand by walking the Milford Track with friends.
The artist and his assistant Matthew Jones will be back in time to attend the public launch of Max Gimblett Pacific Shrine on Friday, February 19, at 7pm.
Mr Gimblett was selected to exhibit in a group show at the Guggenheim Museum last year.
His work is exhibited in major public and private collections around the world.
Gallery director Nadene Milne said the 20 pieces to be exhibited in Pacific Shrine represented his finest works to date.
"These paintings draw on eastern art technique and theological practice.
They are his final phase of his late classical Chinese period.
"The artist himself is a huge personality who is full of paradoxes. Just as his work often portrays the yin and yang, so too, does the man."
