Emily (Emare) Karaka (born

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

in 1952) is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

artist of Māori ( Ngāti Tai ki Tāmaki, Ngati Hine,

Ngāpuhi Ngāpuhi (or Ngā Puhi) is a Māori iwi associated with the Northland region of New Zealand and centred in the Hokianga, the Bay of Islands, and Whangārei. According to the 2018 New Zealand census, the estimated population of Ngāpuhi is 16 ...

) descent Kirker, Anne. ''New Zealand Women Artists'' Reed Methuen, 1986 Her work is recognised for "its expressive intensity, her use of high key colour, and her gritty address of political issues related to Māori land rights and the Treaty of Waitangi".

Biography

Karaka grew up in Glen Innes in Auckland in a family of five siblings. Her brother Dilworth Karaka is in the New Zealand band Herbs. Karaka herself brought her family up in Glen Innes and lives there still.

Career

A largely self-taught artist, Karaka credits many figures in New Zealand art as mentors, including

Greer Twiss Greer Lascelles Twiss (born 23 June 1937) is a New Zealand sculptor, and in 2011 was the recipient of an Icon Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand, limited to 20 living art-makers. Career Twiss was born in Auckland on 23 June 1937, ...

Colin McCahon Colin John McCahon (; 1August 191927May 1987) was a prominent New Zealand artist whose work over 45 years consisted of various styles, including landscape, figuration, abstraction, and the overlay of painted text. Along with Toss Woollaston an ...

, Gretchen Albrecht, Tony Fomison,

Arnold Manaaki Wilson Arnold Manaaki Wilson (11 December 1928 – 1 May 2012) was a New Zealand artist and educator of Māori ( Ngāi Tūhoe, Te Arawa) descent. He is regarded as a pioneer of the modern Māori art movement. Early life and education Born in Ruatoki ...

, Philip Clairmont and Allan Maddox. In a 2014 interview she said:

Greer Twiss was my teacher at intermediate school, and I met Colin McCahon at Greer's house when I was 12. They became my kaitiaki. They steered me away from Tamaki College because they didn't consider the arts curriculum there was sufficient, and steered me to Auckland Girls' Grammar. That was great because I had people like Liz Mountain lizabeth Ellis She'd just come out of training school so she had a lot of energy and the commitment to keep to your cultural landscape and develop it.

Karaka is seen as part of the first generation of contemporary Māori artists and she is often placed alongside painters Robyn Kahukiwa and Kura Te Waru Rewiri in discussions of New Zealand art history. She acknowledges Katarina Mataira, Selwyn Muru and

Arnold Wilson Sir Arnold Talbot Wilson (18 July 1884 – 31 May 1940) was a British soldier, colonial administrator, Conservative politician, writer and editor. Wilson served under Percy Cox, the colonial administrator of Mesopotamia (Mandatory Iraq) ...

as kaumātua (respected elders) who paved the way for the next generation of Māori artists.

Recent exhibitions

''Rāhui'', 29 April - 4 June 2021. Visions Gallery, Auckland. ''Two Artists: Emily Karaka &

Shona Rapira Davies Shona Rapira Davies (born 1951) is a sculptor and painter of Ngātiwai ki Aotea tribal descent. Currently residing in Wellington New Zealand. Education Rapira Davies first studied at the Auckland College of Education, majoring in art, and lat ...

'', Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2015. Curated by Megan Tamati-Quennell, this exhibition contrasted the work of these two senior female Māori artists and explored how their early work aligned with the 'Mana Wahine' movement; 'a movement that developed from the momentum of the feminist art and Māori protest movements of the 1970s'. ''Five Māori Painters'', Auckland Art Gallery, 2014. Curated by Ngahiraka Mason, this exhibition brought together the work of senior artists Karaka, Robyn Kahukiwa, and Kura Te Waru Rewiri with artists from a younger generation, Saffron Te Ratana and Star Gossage. Karaka had a work presented, ''Kingitanga ki Te Ao (They Will Throw Stones)'', (2020) at the 22nd Sydney Biennale.

References

Further information

The Big Art Trip Series 1 Episode 2
features Emily Karaka
Five Māori Painters: Emily Karaka
interview recorded by Auckland Art Gallery 2014
Emily Karaka talks about her 1984 work ''The Treaties''
audio-recording from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Interview with Ngahiraka Mason, curator of ''Five Māori Painters''
Standing Room Only,

Radio New Zealand National RNZ National ( mi, Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa Ā-Motu), formerly Radio New Zealand National, and known until 2007 as the National Programme or National Radio, is a publicly funded non-commercial New Zealand English-language radio network operat ...

, 2014
Personal and political
Shona Rapira Davies and Emily Karaka interviewed by curator Megan Tamati-Quennell
Emily Karaka
in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa {{DEFAULTSORT:Karaka, Emily New Zealand artists 1952 births Living people People from Auckland 20th-century New Zealand women artists 21st-century New Zealand women artists