Michael Parekowhai

Michael Te Rakato Parekowhai (born 1968) is a New Zealand sculptor, of Ngā Ariki Kaiputahi, Ngāti Whakarongo[1] and Pākehā descent.

Parekowhai was awarded an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award in 2001, and is currently Professor at Auckland University's Elam School of Fine Arts.[2] In 2011 he represented New Zealand at the Venice Biennale.[3]

Early life

Parekowhai was born in Porirua, Both his parents were schoolteachers. He spent his childhood and attended school in Auckland's North Shore suburbs. After leaving high school, Parekowhai worked as a florist's assistant before commencing his BFA at Auckland University's Elam School of Fine Arts (1987–1990). He trained as a high-school art teacher, before returning to Elam to complete his MFA (1998–2000).

Themes and style

Parekowhai makes a broad range of work, across a range of media that intersects sculpture and photography.

"...interweaves the canon of “high art” with cultural tradition, the handmade object with mass-produced tourist tat, the imported with the proudly colloquial. With the diligence of a cultural props person, he appropriates the already appropriated in a manner that is often humorous, at times uncomfortable..."[4]

Despite the range of Parekowhai's output, his practice is linked throughout, both stylistically – a characteristic 'gloss' of high production value – and thematically.

Curator Justin Paton writes of Parekowhai:

They [Michael Parekowhai artworks] have a way of sneaking up on you, even when they're straight ahead. Pick-up sticks swollen to the size of spears. A photograph of a stuffed rabbit who has you in his sights. A silky bouquet that rustles with politics. Seemingly serene beneath their gleaming, factory-finished surfaces, Michael Parekowhai's sculptures and photographs are in fact supremely artful objects. 'Artful' not just because they're beautifully made...but also because they manage, with a combination of slyness, charm and audacity, to spring ambushes that leave you richer.[5]

Notable works

On First Looking into Chapmans Homer
The World Turns

There are plans for a public sculpture by Parekowhai to be placed in Queens Wharf, Auckland.[9]

Exhibitions

Solo

Group

Awards / Honours

Collections

Parekowhai's work is held in most New Zealand public gallery collections and a number of international museums.

Publications

References

  1. ↑ Fox, C.L. (17 September 2013). "32 Tairawhiti MB 249, A20120015627". Māori Land Court. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  2. ↑ http://www.creative.auckland.ac.nz/people/elam/m-parekowhai
  3. ↑ "Michael Parekowhai at the Venice Biennale". Te Ara - online encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  4. ↑ "Michael Parekowhai interview", Sally Blundell, May 14, 2011, The Listener
  5. ↑ "Special Agent Michael Parekowhai's Generous Duplicity". Art New Zealand. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
  6. ↑ "Million-dollar mammoth makes minister mad", October 17, 2012, Daniel Hurst, brisbanetimes.com.au
  7. ↑ "ARTIST NAMED FOR $1M SCULPTURE COMMISSION AT GOMA 5TH BIRTHDAY PARTY", November 26, 2011, qld.gov.au
  8. ↑ "He Korero Purakau mo Te Awanui o Te Motu: story of a New Zealand river, 2011". Ocula. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
  9. ↑ "Public Art: Michael Parekowhai's Light House". Auckland Council. Auckland Council. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
  10. ↑ Shontelle Campbell (November 2016). "Sculpture a talking point". Hamilton News. The New Zealand Herald.
  11. ↑ Michael Parekowhai: The Promised Land (1st ed.). Brisbane: Queensland Art Gallery. 2015. ISBN 978-1-921503-74-0.
  12. ↑ "Michael Parekowhai: On First Looking into Chapman's Homer". Christchurch Art Gallery. 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  13. ↑ "Michael Parekowhai". One Day Sculpture. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
  14. ↑ "Black Rainbow". Te Uru. Retrieved 13 June 2015.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Michael Parekowhai.
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