Michael Te Rakato Parekōwhai (born 1968) 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 ...

sculptor and a professor at the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

Elam School of Fine Arts The Elam School of Fine Arts, founded by John Edward Elam, is part of the Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries at the University of Auckland. Students study degrees in fine art with an emphasis on a multidisciplinary approach. The schoo ...

. He is of Ngāriki Rotoawe and Ngāti Whakarongo descent and his mother is

Pākehā Pākehā (or Pakeha; ; ) is a Māori term for New Zealanders primarily of European descent. Pākehā is not a legal concept and has no definition under New Zealand law. The term can apply to fair-skinned persons, or to any non- Māori New Z ...

. Parekowhai was awarded an

Arts Foundation of New Zealand 'The Arts Foundation of New Zealand Te Tumu Toi is a New Zealand arts organisation that supports artistic excellence and facilitates private philanthropy through raising funds for the arts and allocating it to New Zealand artists. The concept ...

Laureate Award in 2001. He represented New Zealand at the 2011

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

Early life

Parekowhai was born in Porirua. Both his parents were schoolteachers. He spent his childhood in Auckland's North Shore suburbs, where he also attended school. After leaving high school, Parekowhai worked as a florist's assistant before commencing a bachelor's degree in fine arts at

(1987–1990). He trained as a high-school art teacher before returning to Elam to complete a maser's degree in fine arts (1998–2000).

Themes and style

Parekowhai makes a variety of work across a range of media that intersects sculpture and photography. Sally Blundell, writing in the '' New Zealand Listener'', says: :Originality, authenticity, ownership. In Parekowhai’s work, such notions blur, slipping into a collective act of translation that interweaves the canon of "high art" with cultural tradition, the handmade object with mass-produced tourist tat, the imported with the proudly colloquial. 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 Justin Paton (born 1972) is a New Zealand writer, art critic and curator, currently based in Sydney, Australia. His book ''How to Look at a Painting'' (2005) was adapted into a 12-episode television series by TVNZ in 2011. Education Paton stu ...

writes that Parekowhai's works "have a way of sneaking up on you, even when they're straight ahead." He continues:

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.

Notable works

''On First Looking into Chapman's Homer'' – an installation of two bronze bulls on grand pianos, two bronze olive saplings and the figure of a stoic security guard, his entry in 54th La Biennale di Venezia in 2011. Part of this installation, titled ''Chapman's Homer'' and consisting of a single bull atop a piano, was acquired by the

Christchurch Art Gallery The Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, commonly known as the Christchurch Art Gallery, is the public art gallery of the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. It has its own substantial art collection and also presents a programme of New ...

. *''A Peak in Darien –'' a bronze bull atop a grand piano. The piece sold at an auction in New Zealand for $2,051,900 in November 2021, becoming the most expensive artwork by any artist sold in a New Zealand auction. * ''The World Turns'' – a life-sized bronze elephant tipped on its head and eye-to-eye with a

kuril The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (; rus, Кури́льские острова́, r=Kuril'skiye ostrova, p=kʊˈrʲilʲskʲɪjə ɐstrɐˈva; Japanese: or ) are a volcanic archipelago currently administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the ...

(water-rat), commissioned by the

Queensland Gallery of Modern Art The Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) is an art museum located within the Queensland Cultural Centre in the South Bank precinct of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. GOMA, which opened on 2 December 2006, is the largest ...

. * ''He Kōrero Pūrākau mo Te Awanui o Te Motu: story of a New Zealand river'' — an original Steinway grand piano covered in glossy red carvings. The piano is played at each of the exhibitions that it features in, for example in the 2012 Te Papa exhibition with works from

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 ...

and Jim Allen. * ''The Lighthouse: Tū Whenua-a-Kura'' – Queens Wharf, Auckland

Exhibitions

Solo

* 2016 "The Tongue of The Dog'', outside

Waikato Museum Waikato Museum ( mi, Te Whare Taonga o Waikato) is a regional museum located in Hamilton, New Zealand. The museum manages ArtsPost, a shop and gallery space for New Zealand art and design. Both are managed by the Hamilton City Council. Outside ...

Hamilton, New Zealand Hamilton ( mi, Kirikiriroa) is an inland city in the North Island of New Zealand. Located on the banks of the Waikato River, it is the seat and most populous city of the Waikato region. With a territorial population of , it is the country's ...

* 2015 ''The Promised Land''

Queensland Art Gallery The Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) is an art museum located in South Bank, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. It complements the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) building, situated only away. The Queensland Art Galler ...

and Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Brisbane, Australia. * 2013 ''The Past in the Present'', Michael Lett at the Auckland Art Fair, Auckland * 2012 ''On First Looking into Chapman's Homer'',

Te Puna o Waiwhetu, Christchurch. * 2011 54th

New Zealand Pavilion. Also at Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France * 2011 ''The Far Side'' Michael Lett, Auckland * 2011 ''Te Ao Hurihuri'' Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch * 2009 ''The Moment of Cubism'' Michael Lett, Auckland, New Zealand * 2009 ''Seldom is Herd'', Roslyn Oxley Gallery, Sydney, Australia * 2009 ''Yes We Are'' One Day Sculpture, Wellington, New Zealand * 2008 ''Jim McMurtry'' Maori Hall / Michael Lett, Auckland, New Zealand * 2007 ''The Song of the Frog'', Michael Lett, Auckland, New Zealand * 2007 ''My Sister, My Self'' Michael Lett, Auckland, New Zealand * 1994 ''Kiss the Baby Goodbye'' Govett-Brewster, New Plymouth. * 1994 ''A Capella'', Greg Flint Gallery, Auckland

Group

* 1990 ''Choice!''

Artspace Artspace may refer to: * Artspace (website), an online marketplace based in New York City * Artspace, New Haven, an art gallery in downtown New Haven, Connecticut * Artspace Mackay, Mackay, Queensland, Australia * Artspace NZ, a visual arts cent ...

, Auckland * 1992 ''Headlands'' Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney * 1995–1996 ''Cultural Safety''

City Gallery Wellington City Gallery Te Whare Toi is a public art gallery in Wellington, New Zealand. History City Gallery Te Whare Toi began its life as the Wellington City Art Gallery on 23 September 1980 in a former office block located at 65 Victoria Street, now ...

and

Frankfurter Kunstverein The Frankfurt Art Association (german: link=no, Frankfurter Kunstverein) is an art museum founded in 1829 by a group of influential citizens of the city of Frankfurt, Germany. The aim of the institution is to support the arts in the city, which w ...

* Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, Australia (APT3 1999, APT5 2006 & APT7 2012) * 2014–2015 ''Black Rainbow'',

Te Papa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring f ...

, Wellington

Collections

Parekowhai's work is held in most New Zealand public gallery collections and a number of international museums, including the Queensland Art Gallery , Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia.

Awards / honours

* Artist Laureate, Arts Foundation of New Zealand, 2001. * Premier of Queensland Sculpture Commission, Queensland, Australia, 2011. * Nga Toa Whakaihuwaka, Māori of the Year for Arts, 2011. *Barfoot & Thompson, 90th Anniversary Gift to Auckland City, Waterfront Commission, 2013. * 'Top 50 Public Art Project' awarded by Americans for the Arts, Public Art Network, 2013 Year in Review, for ''Blue Stratus'', Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Arizona, USA, 2013. In collaboration with Mario Madayag. * Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi, 2017.

Notes

References

External links

Staff profile
University of Auckland
Artist biography
Artfacts.net
Michael Parekowhai page on the Bowerbank Ninow artist database

Artist biography on Ocula website

Radio New Zealand National interview
12 March 2011
CV on Michael Lett website

Works in the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki collection

Works in the Chartwell Collection

Works in the Christchurch Art Gallery collection

Works in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery collection

Works in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa collection

Works in the Queensland Art Gallery collection
* Bernard Osman
Cost of State House sculpture rocketed to $1.9 million
''New Zealand Herald'', 23 October 2014 * John McDonald

''Sydney Morning Herald'', 5 June 2015 * Charlie Gates
The bull comes home
''The Press'', 11 January 2016. Interview with the artist. * PUBLIC ART NETWORK YEAR IN REVIEW DATABASE, https://www.americansforthearts.org/by-program/networks-and-councils/public-art-network/public-art-year-in-review-database/blue-stratus {{DEFAULTSORT:Parekowhai, Michael 1968 births New Zealand contemporary artists Elam Art School alumni Living people New Zealand Māori artists 20th-century New Zealand sculptors 20th-century New Zealand male artists 21st-century New Zealand sculptors 21st-century New Zealand male artists People associated with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa Ngāriki Kaiputahi University of Auckland faculty