Billy Apple®
Billy Apple® was a New Zealand/USA artist, whose work is associated with the British and New York schools of pop art in the 1960s and NY's Conceptual Art movement in the 1970s. He worked alongside artists like Andy Warhol and David Hockney before opening the second of the seven New York Not-for-Profit spaces in 1969. His work is held in the permanent collections of Tate Britain, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Guggenheim Museum, Chrysler Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of Arts, National Gallery of Australia, Te Papa, Auckland Art Gallery, the Christchurch Art Gallery, the University of Auckland, and the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst in Belgium.
In 2015, Apple® was the subject of a major retrospective exhibition at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, curated by Tina Barton. In 2018, Apple® was named as an Icon by the Arts Foundation of New Zealand, an honour limited to 20 living New Zealanders.