 Built in 1940 in an Art Deco style, the gallery's current building originally housed the Wellington Public Library - replacing the original red brick City Library building of 1893.In 1991 the Library moved into a new building next door.Since the 1993 opening at its current location, the City Gallery has hosted monographic exhibitions of major international artists such as Tracey Emin, Keith Haring, Rosalie Gascoigne, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, Robert Mapplethorpe, Tracey Moffatt, Sidney Nolan, Patricia Piccinini, Pierre et Gilles, Bridget Riley, Sam Taylor Wood, Salla Tykkä, Stanley Spencer, Wim Wenders plus New Zealand's own Laurence Aberhart, Rita Angus, Shane Cotton, Tony Fomison, Bill Hammond, Ralph Hotere, Ronnie van Hout, Melvin Day, Martin Thompson, and Boyd Webb.