Bergman Gallery Auckland is proud to present Horizon, a progressive group exhibition showcasing the evolving dialogue of Pacific art in Aotearoa. Featuring established, mid-career, and emerging artists—Fatu Feu’u, Louie Bretaña, Raymond Sagapolutele, Tanja McMillan, Telly Tuita, Benjamin Work, Andy Leleisi’uao, Luise Fong, Sefton Rani, Joan Gragg, Alison Leauanae, Linda Va’aelua, and Steve Houkāmau—this exhibition is an urgent reflection on contemporary Pacific identity, cultural resilience, and artistic innovation.
Informed by Indigenous knowledge systems, Horizon traverses themes of migration, belonging, and transformation, positioning Pacific art within global modernities. Feu’u’s pioneering visual language echoes Samoan siapo (tapa) traditions, while Work interrogates Tongan ancestral narratives through abstract symbology. Leleisi’uao’s social surrealism amplifies diasporic realities, juxtaposed against Rani’s material explorations of industrial detritus as cultural metaphors. Houkāmau’s uku (clay) vessels, steeped in Māori whakapapa, assert an Indigenous futurism that resonates across Moana-nui-a-Kiwa.
As Pacific artists navigate shifting cultural landscapes, Horizon asserts art as a vessel for mana, counter-narrative, and decolonial agency. Within the urban fabric of Tāmaki Makaurau, this exhibition honours Oceanic visionaries who reframe tradition within the fluidity of contemporary practice. Their collective voices—rooted in ancestry yet embracing the horizon ahead—offer a potent statement on identity, resistance, and renewal.
