May 19, 2015
Maori art prominent in gallery line-up
The relationship between past and present in modern Maori art can be seen in new exhibitions drawn from the collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki.
Principal curator Zara Stanhope says the Insights and Connections programme takes a fresh look at New Zealand art and will be regularly updated.
Whano Ke: Change and Constancy in Maori Art Today, which runs until March next year, covers Maori art from the 1960s to now, and includes work by Shane Cotton, Chris Heaphy, Ralph Hotere, Michael Parekowhai, Fiona Pardington and other leading artists.
Dr Stanhope says Maori curator Ngahiraka Mason has looked at the way Maori artists have brought traditions into the present.
"She sort of put her finger on that idea in a sense of going forward looking to the future but also really respecting the past and continuing ideas which are important. I've called them tradition but you know continuing really important ideas in creative practice" says Dr Stanhope.
Other exhibitions include Te Wa Toiri: Fluid Horizons, featuring weaving by Maureen Lander proposed the Maori title of this exhibition, an installation by Ioane Ioane, and wall sculptures by Niki Hastings-McFall; and He Iwi Rangatira, which includes taonga Maori and portraits of leading 19th century chiefs by Charles F Goldie, Gottfried Lindauer, and other painters and photographers.
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