Dalosa, Lafo & Iva is a new group exhibition that focuses on the relationships we hold, with ourselves, each other, past images, an index of names, and a whakatauki, explored through the mediums of photography, sculpture and installation.
Curated by James Tapsell-Kururangi, the exhibition features new commissions by each of the artists, Lolani Dalosa, Ma'alo Lafo and Axel Iva.
The conversation began in 2024 between Physics Room director James Tapsell-Kururangi and Edith Amituanai while working together on the artist development programme Papatūnga at Te Tuhi in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. At the time, Amituanai was working with artist Ma’alo Lafo as his mentor for an external mentoring programme at Moana Fresh.
This exhibition brings the three artists together with the intention of continuing to create pathways for early-career Pasifika artists. Amituanai is the tuakana for the exhibition. The reciprocal model of tuakana-teina scaffolds learning and the relationship is equally important when working together as Māori and Pasifika.
Dalosa, Lafo & Iva is co-commissioned by Te Tuhi and The Physics Room with the support of Canterbury Museum & The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora.
About the artists
→ Dubbed Axel Iva
Dubbed Axel Iva—a Samoan artist with bloodlines from Apolima, Iva, Salelavalu, and Salelologa, born and based in Māngere East, Tāmaki Makaurau. Iva’s creative practice involves craft and design, ranging from tactile techniques to technological applications. His exploration of semantics, semiotics and Samoan life catalyse his seriocomic pieces and concepts. Iva was a 2023 recipient of the Tautai Fale-ship artist's residency, during which he completed the series A’E, I.O.U, a 17-piece, mixed media homeware collection, indexed according to the Samoan alphabet.
→ Lolani Dalosa
Lolani Dalosa is a Samoan and Filipino artist and curator, raised in Tāmaki Makaurau. His father is from Eastern Samar in the Philippines, and his mother hails from the village of Lepea, Samoa. Dalosa is a co-founder of the South Auckland design and art collective ‘Raroboys’. His practice encompasses mixed media, design, printmaking, and photography. Dalosa is interested in cultural iconography, featuring recognisable characters and objects from his visual lexicon. Dalosa's most recent exhibitions include Character Studies, 2024 at Te Tuhi, and Someone's at The Door, 2023 at Papakura Art Gallery, and was included in Do Not Alter, 2021 at Corban Estate Arts Centre, and Cross My Heart, 2022 at The Nix. Dalosa was the recipient of the 2023 Oceanic Internship with Tautai and Te Uru, and curator of Raroboys Vol.3, 2024 at Studio One Toi Tū.
→ Ma'alo Lafo
Ma’alo Lafo is an artist hailing from the villages of Falealili & Taufusi. Raised in Tāmaki Makaurau, Lafo is a lens-based practitioner who documents his local community in Ōtara, friends and family. He is an active member of the South Auckland Photoclub, and was the recipient of the 2024 Vuli Tara Mentoring Programme with Moana Fresh.