About the artists exhibiting in Waipawa
Heidi Brickell
(Te Hika a Pāpāuma, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tara, Rangitāne, Rongomaiwahine, Ngāti Apakura)
Heidi Brickell’s practice explores how integrated lineages of mātauranga and language inform our psychological and relational spheres. Her recent large-scale exhibition PAKANGA FOR THE LOSTGIRL toured the motu in 2022 and 2023, from St Paul’s Street Gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, to The Physics Room, Ōtautahi Christchurch, and The Engine Room, Te Whānganui-a-Tara Wellington, with wānanga accompanying them. Her 2023 installation of rimurapa sculpture Wai Ata Āta Whāia is following a similar trajectory, moving and evolving from Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū to Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. Brickell was the 2021 winner of the Molly Morpeth Canaday Akel Award, and completed the Rita Angus artist residency in 2023 and Karekare House residency in 2021. Her work is held in collections of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna Waiwhetū, The Dowse Art Museum, Te Haerenga Collection and the James Wallace Collection.
Zena Elliott
(Ngāi Te Rangi, Te Whānau ā Apanui, Ngāti Rangitihi, Ngāti Awa)
Zena Elliott is a contemporary transdisciplinary artist and creative researcher whose practice explores painting, whakairo, installation, academia, and research. Their work stimulates discussions about gender, fluidity, visibility, Indigenous subcultures, Indigenous sovereignty, and self-determination. Elliott’s art practice navigates and integrates these diverse disciplines, creating a space for curiosity, innovation, and Indigenous creative practice, serving as a research inquiry. Their most recent solo exhibition is Light Speed Ahead Carved Stories Back to the Future, at Whakatāne Galleries (2024). In 2022 they were one of three artists selected for the Artist in Residency program hosted by Te Matatiki Toi Ora, the Arts Centre, Ōtautahi Christchurch; in 2024 they were one of RT Nelson Sculpture Awards Finalist and one of four Highly Recommended Award winners, and the recipient of the Arataki Reo Rōreka O Tauranga Moana (Leadership Visual Arts) Award, Ngā Tohu Toi 2024.
Tracy Keith
(Ngāpuhi)
Tracy Keith is an artist who works predominantly in raku clay, stretching, pushing and molding its forms combining an organic sensibility with shapes and embellishments that at times resemble machine parts. The molten glazes and metallic hues give each vessel its own character and reflects the relationship between industry and whenua. Keith focuses on the physical qualities of clay, and how these can be used to represent his experiences of te ao Māori within current times. Among Keith's most recent exhibitions are Mind that Māori, group exhibition at Tim Melville Gallery (2024); Pōhutukawa, solo exhibition at Masterworks Gallery (2023); Burn it all down, group exhibition at Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art an History (2023). From 2018-2021, Keith worked as Senior Art Technician for Te Rau Karamu Marae, Wharenui – Te Whaioranga o Te Whaiao, a new marae project with Massey University Wellington. His work is held in collections of The Dowse Art Museum, The Arts House Trust and Pātaka Art + Museum.
Neke Moa
(Te Whare a Papaīra, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Ahuriri, Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Tūwharetoa)
Neke Moa’s practice seeks to promote hauora by deepening connections between tāngata, tohunga and atua. Using materials from the taiao, and drawing on customary and contemporary processes, she works to make mātauranga and pūrākau newly accessible. Working primarily with pounamu, shell and other locally sourced materials, her practice as a jeweller and carver explores the whakapapa of materials making and the role of body adornment in creating a sense of belonging to people and place. Her work explores our connections within the spaces of the seen and unseen, the place where wairua resides and creativity is sourced. Some of Moa's most recent exhibitions are Ngā tirohanga whānui a Parehuia, solo exhibition at Objectspace (2024); Mauri, collaboration with Paula Conroy at Season Aotearoa (2023); Always song in the water, group show at Auckland Maritime Museum (2023). In 2023, she was awarded a prestigious Herbert Hofmann Prize at Munich Jewellery Week and was a McCahon House artist-in-residence. She taught shell craft in Fiji and Tonga from 2016 until 2020 and continues to teach and learn as part of her art practice. Works by Moa are held in the collections of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, The Dowse Art Museum and the Musuem of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
Maraea Timutimu
(Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Tūhoe)
Maraea Timutimu is a multidisciplinary artist and an art educator teaching in New Zealand high schools and kura-a-iwi. Her artistic pathway has led her to explore a diverse range of mediums, including painting, sculpture, photography, and installation. She often finds herself returning to traditional Māori arts as a learner of raranga, taaniko and patternmaking. In the last three years, she has been using whenua as a medium to delve into her connections and whakapapa. This process has become a meaningful way for her to document the places she belongs to. Additionally she extends on this whenua practice by teaching it in kura-a-iwi, and to whānau and hapū in marae-based wānanga. Timutimu’s most recent exhibition, titled He kāwai whenua, he kāwai whakapapa, was displayed at Whakatāne Museum Te Whare Taonga o Taketake (2023) and at Tauranga Art Gallery (2022). In 2023, she received a Highly Commended award at The Molly Morpeth Canaday Award. She has completed commissioned works for organisations such as NZTA Baylink, Tauranga, Auckland Museum, Toi Ohomai Institute of Tehcnology, Tauranga City Council and Te Wharehou O Tūhoe, Tāneatua.
Nephi Tupaea
(Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Tiipa, Ngāti Koroki Kahukura, Ngāti Kahungunu)
Nephi Tupaea is a multi-media artist and long-standing member of the artist collective Pacific Sisters and Iwi Toi Ngāti Kahungunu. Renowned for her creative dance performances, installations, body adornment, spoken word, fibre activation and innovative costume designs, Tupaea’s practice is guided through tūpuna intervention, where tikanga creates new conversations and develops Indigenous symbols and images. Nephi has exhibited works throughout Aotearoa (New Zealand) and internationally. Her most recent exhibitions include: Te Tangata, solo exhibition at Tim Melville Gallery (2024); Te Paepae Aora’i – Where The Gods Cannot Be Fooled, group show with Savāge K’lub at the National Gallery of Australia (2024); The Effeminate Gaze, solo exhibition at ĀKINA Gallery (2023). Works by Tupaea are held in the collections of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, HBHD Hastings Hospital, Australia Museum, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
John Turi-Tiakitai
(Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne)
John Turi-Tiakitai is an arts and cultural advisor, teacher, and weaver. His relationship with Te Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa and Toi Māori was founded while he was the Cultural Development Manager at Te Puia New Zealand Maori Arts & Crafts Institute in Rotorua. A past manager of arts programmes at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, Rotorua, he was instrumental in developing the weaving arts degree programme. Alongside Edna Pahewa and Christina Wirihana, Turi-Tiakitai has assisted in the curation of several exhibitions and publications including He Hekenga nō Ngā Tūpuna (2018); Te Ringa Rehe: The Legacy of Emily Schuster (2017); Whiria: Weaving Global Connections (2015). He was also one of the contributing authors of Whatu Kākahu: Māori Cloaks, (Ed) Awhina Tamarapa, Te Papa Publications (2011), and he assisted in the creation of the Turapa/Tukutuku panels for the United Nation Assembly building. His particular interest in weaving is the whatu pūreke and pākē, the simple rain capes that have become popular in recent times.
About the curator
Karl Chitham
(Ngāpuhi, Te Uriroroi)
Karl Chitham is Head of Arts & Culture for Hutt City Council and director of The Dowse Art Museum. He held roles in universities, museums and public galleries including as Director and Curator at Tauranga Art Gallery. He is a trustee of Wairau Māori Art Gallery, the first dedicated public Māori art gallery nationally and has written for multiple arts publications including co-authoring the ground-breaking publication Crafting Aotearoa: A Cultural History of New Zealand and the Wider Moana Oceania. He has curated numerous exhibitions including Whetūrangitia/Made As Stars, co-curated with Aaron Lister, Reuben Paterson: The Only Dream Left at City Gallery, Wellington and Takiwā Hou: Imagining New Spaces for the inaugural Malta Biennale and Te Tuhi.