John Pule’s Hauaga (Arrivals) exhibition at Wellington’s City Gallery has been described by critics as a “landmark survey of work by a contemporary Pacific artist”. The exhibition shows Pule’s work stretching across art forms and cultures, drawing from an endlessly rich range of historical and present day sources from the Pacific, as well as Aotearoa New Zealand and beyond. Hauaga features 23 of John Pule’s large canvases and around 40 of his works on paper. It surveys his career since 1991—the year he travelled back to his birthplace, Niue, and reconnected with the traditional Niuean art of hiapo. John Pule’s art plays a pivotal role in the presentation of Pacific cultures globally and has been exhibited in Europe, America, Asia and Australia. The exhibition ends on 12 September 2010 at the West & East Galleries. (Image of “Another Green World” by John Pule, adapted from the City Gallery website.)
Pacific artists and critics from around the world are arriving in Rarotonga for the 10th Pacific Arts Association (PAA) International Symposium early next week. The theme for the symposium is “Museums, New Global Communities, and Future Trends”. The purpose of the PAA is to connect individuals and institutions around the world and encourage greater cooperation among those involved with the creation, study and exhibition of Pacific Art. The symposium will take place from 9 – 11 August 2010, at the Crown Beach Resort in Ratotonga.
Fresh Gallery Otara announces a new exhibition Alias by Niutuiatua Lemalu. The exhibition plays with the idea of identity through the art of portraiture. Alias is Fresh Gallery Otara’s 50th exhibition and takes subjects and stories from magazines to dissect the stereotyping and the masking of identity that is so common in this media. In re-imagining these images, Lemalu exposes the clashes between stereotypes and reality. Fresh Gallery Otara Manager Ema Tavola, says “Lemalu is a fascinating emerging Manukau artist. I expect that we’ll see a lot more of him after his first solo exhibition at Fresh Gallery Otara. Lemalu is based in Manurewa and was educated at Epsom’s St Peters College. He is in the process of completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts. The exhibition contains 20 individual painted portraits and runs from 13 August to 14 September 2010 at the Fresh Gallery Otara. The artist will deliver a floor talk at noon on Saturday 28 August. (Image courtesy of Fresh Gallery Otara)
Creative New Zealand’s third review of its Recurrently Funded Organisations (RFOs) is recommending that two feasibility studies be undertaken in the next year. The first is to look into a management company for dance and theatre companies, including Maori and Pasifika dance and theatre, to provide shared, cost-effective management and audience development services for smaller independent companies. The second study will look at a Pasifika arts development organisation to coordinate and provide capability building for Pasifika artists across a range of arts practice and to develop new audiences for Pasifika arts and artists. The review recommends that work on the feasibility of these initiatives be carried out in 2010–11 so that options can be considered by 2012, when the new multi-year investment programmes have been implemented.
The Braveheart Youth Trust art exhibition opened last night in Auckland and features a display of up to 600 artworks. Numerous paintings, photographs, prints, sculptures and objets d’art will be available for viewing and for sale. The 200+ artists represented, both emerging and well-known, come from all around New Zealand and include Pacific artists Lina Marsh, Jean Clarkson, Leanne Clayton, Loloma Andrews, Sylvia Marsters, and Tui Hobson. The exhibition runs for two days only and finishes on Sunday 30 May, 2010. This is a good opportunity to buy art and support a great cause. To see a selection of the art see the Braveheart Youth Trust website. Braveheart assists young New Zealanders whose behaviour has left them at risk of losing their future to the destructive cycle of living in and out of the justice system.
Creative New Zealand in association with Pasifika Festival presents ARTSpeak Pasifika – a two-day national fono for the Pacific arts industry. Open to Pasifika artists working in visual arts, performing arts, film and television, music, literature, music and heritage arts, the fono is an opportunity to share ideas and participate in panel discussions designed to provide inspiration and practical advice on making a successful career in the arts. Creative New Zealand’s Anton Carter says “it’s the first time in over 10 years a multi art form fono like this has been organized”. The fono takes place on Friday 25th June and Saturday 26th June 2010 at the Reception Lounge (Level 2) of the Auckland Town Hall, Queen Street, Auckland. Numbers are limited to 150 people and the cost is a flat rate of $30 which includes refreshments on both days. A limited number of travel subsidies are available to assist participants from outside the Auckland region to attend. For more details and registration, see http://www.creativenz.govt.nz/artspeak.
Several useful resources about Pasifika art are now available from the New Zealand Film Archive, Ngā Kaitiaki O Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua. These resources look at Pacific Island people participating in a broad range of New Zealand arts including Fine Art, Music, Dance, Theatre, Film and Literature. Fatu Feu’u discusses the motifs and traditions that inspire his painting; Ani O’Neill tries to teach Nick Ward to crotchet; King Kapisi shows us his home in Piha, while his sisters show us theirs in Lyall Bay; Jonathan Lemalu discusses his rise to fame in the competitive world of opera; and Tusiata Avia talks to Finlay MacDonald about growing up Samoan in Christchurch. To access these materials from the Film Archive website, click here.
Tino Rangatira Tanga is a powerful exhibition by emerging Maori and Pacific artist Leilani Kake (Tainui, Ngāpuhi, Cook Island, American). Filmed entirely on hand held camera Tino Rangatira Tanga follows Kake as she documents her fathers tā moko (Māori facial tattooing) and his subsequent illness and passing. The footage, shot in first person perspective with Kake behind the lens, provides the audience with an opportunity to experience these sacred moments through her eyes. The exhibition runs at the Deane Gallery, 101 Wakefield Street, Wellington until 13 June 2010. Kake is an Auckland-based video installation artist who utilises narratives taken directly from her personal life to comment on larger issues facing Māori and Pacific Island communities living in Aotearoa New Zealand. She gained a Degree in Visual Arts at the Manukau Institute of Technology in 2002 and returned in 2005 to undertake postgraduate studies in Fine Arts. She regularly exhibits nationally and abroad, and recently presented a paper on Māori and Pacific urban arts in Aotearoa New Zealand to the Los Angeles College Art Association (2009) in San Francisco. In 2005, she was awarded the Salamander Gallery/Creative New Zealand Emerging Pacific Visual Artist Award. Tino Rangatira Tanga was first exhibited at the Fresh Gallery Otara, Auckland, in 2008.
 (Image adapted from Ema Tavola’s Colour Me Fiji blog.)
A new purpose-built Mangere Arts Centre is being built in South Auckland and is expected to be completed by September 2010. Once completed the centre will provide Mangere with a world-class performance and arts venue including a 300-seat flexiform performance area, state of the art acoustic design, suitable for a range of music from fine music to rock, 240m² gallery, 56m² studio, foyers, offices, change rooms, a café, and a large outdoor courtyard. Ema Tavola, the current Pacific Arts Coordinator for Manukau City Council, will take up the position of Visual Arts Manager at the new Mangere Arts Centre. Speaking of her time at Fresh Gallery Otara, Ema said that the gallery was the public platform for her work supporting the development of an already robust Pacific arts sector in Manukau City. We have hosted exhibitions, talanoa / dialogue, workshops, poetry and music. We have had so much interaction, engaged so many hearts and minds, inspired and created a fertile ground for meetings, interactions, ideas.” Her current position as Manukau City Council Pacific Arts Coordinator is to be advertised in the coming month.
Following the highly successful 2010 Manukau Pacific Arts Summit, Fresh Gallery Otara celebrates its fourth anniversary with Blood’s Thicker Than Mud, a solo exhibition by Terry Koloamatangi Klavenes. This is Klavenes’ second solo exhibition at Fresh Gallery Otara. After his first solo exhibition at Fresh Gallery Otara in 2007, Hybrids and Hafekasis, Klavenes went on to win the Martin Hughes Contemporary Pacific Art Award. His work was included in Urban Kainga, curated by Reuben Friend, at City Gallery Wellington’s new Deane Gallery early in 2010. Blood’s Thicker than Mud has been selected to represent the gallery’s culture and identity on its fourth anniversary and its success in taking south Auckland/Manukau City artistic excellence to New Zealand and the world. The exhibition runs from 14 May to 12June, 2010. Terry Koloamatangi Klavenes will present an Artist Floor Talk in conversation with renowned artist, curator and arts advisor Jim Vivieaere at 12 noon on Saturday 29 May, 2010. The venue is Fresh Gallery Otara, Otara Community Courtyard, Otara, South Auckland.
(Untitled 09, digital C print, 210×210mm // Courtesy of T. Klavenes and Fresh Gallery Otara)
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