Aaron Lister is Kaipupuri Mātua / Senior Curator at City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi. His curatorial projects include Terminal (2021), Occulture: The Dark Arts (2017), Fiona Pardington: A Beautiful Hesitation (2015) and Demented Architecture (2014), as well as major exhibitions bringing artists such as Derek Jarman, Diane Arbus, Hilma af Klint, Marianna Simnett, Cindy Sherman and Cornelia Parker to Aotearoa New Zealand. Lister’s practice explores the symbolic, psychological and speculative dimensions of contemporary art, with a particular interest in mysticism, occult traditions, horror cinema, science fiction and countercultural histories. His writing and exhibitions frequently examine the unstable terrain between perception and belief, where images become charged with psychic, political and metaphysical intensity.
