Auckland Waterfront
The Cloud, 89 Quay Street
Group Exhibition: Mahirki Tangaroa | Mark Cross | Andy Leleisi'uao | Benjamin Work
From his Wallace Arts Trust Paramount award residency at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York, undertaken July-November 2018, Andy Leleisi’uao will debut his series, A Diasporic Pulse of Faith & Patience. Leleisi’uao’s recent works extend the artist’s premise of an emergent society, re-imagined as a parallel universe, where the traditional human foibles of inequality, injustice and intolerance are constantly broken down and reconstructed in an endless endeavor to build a new utopia.
Pacific realist painter Mark Cross presents a new, large-scale water painting, Coastal Cacophony. Cross’s analysis confronts the fragile state of the human condition, its fraught conflict with itself and its corrosive relationship with nature. Cross’s commentary, while Pacific based, easily translates within current global headlines. Cook Islands artist
Mahiriki Tangaroa’s new paintings are multifaceted symphonies of colour, shape and form. Fauna and pareu patterns, Tivaivai motif and traditional iconography merge together, the artist’s distinct compositions reflecting insightful observations of a contemporary Pacific Island culture struggling to reconcile past and present values.
Benjamin Work presents a new series of paintings entitled Motutapu (Sacred Island). Motutapu, a place name present throughout Polynesia – New Zealand, French Polynesia, Tonga, Cook Islands & Samoa – Fanuatapu, was a place of sanctuary from internal wars, or a place for negotiation, a middle ground, a place for rejuvenation as well as a place to launch new journeys. Benjamin’s new body of work takes him on a journey to these gateways throughout Polynesia, the artists distinctive warrior characters link time, place and purpose as the artist navigates relational spaces and connections to his ancestral environment and questions their contemporary relevance.
