FRANCIS MCWHANNELL

Francis McWhannell is a writer and exhibition-maker from Aotearoa New Zealand, currently based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Museums and Cultural Heritage and a Master of Arts in Art History (First Class Honours) from the University of Auckland Te Whare Wānanga o Tāmaki Makaurau. He is curator of the Fletcher Trust Collection, a major private collection of Aotearoa art founded in 1962, and curatorial adviser to the dealer gallery Visions. He is a passionate advocate for the arts in general and early-career artists from Aotearoa in particular. He was a judge of the Aspiring Art Prize in 2019 and the Eden Arts Art Schools Award in 2019 and 2020.

Francis has written for various arts and culture magazines and websites, including Art Collector (Australia), Art New Zealand, Art News New Zealand, Index, and The Spinoff. He contributes regularly to The Pantograph Punch, where he was Visual Arts Editor from 2016 to 2017. He has written essays for exhibitions at public and commercial galleries, including Painting: a transitive space (ST PAUL St Gallery Three, 2016) and Denys Watkins: Dynamo Hum (Gus Fisher Gallery, 2017). He is co-author of two books on historical photography, Bitter fruit: Australian photographs to 1963 (Michael Graham-Stewart, 2017) and Broad sunlight: Early West African photography (2020).

His exhibitions include Postcards from Papatoetoe (Old Papatoetoe mall, 2016), Fluid structures: Watercolour group show (Parlour Projects, 2017), and Projects 2019: Whanaungatanga (Auckland Art Fair, 2019). He is presently working on a group show of photographs with Chris Corson-Scott, Undercurrents: reimagining New Zealand, to be accompanied by a substantial publication.

KAY ABUDE

Kay Abude participated in Projects 2018. (Pictured with curators Gabriela Salgado and Francis McWhannell at the 2018 Auckland Art Fair, Kay Abude pictured on right)

LOUISA AFOA

Louisa Afoa participated in Projects 2018.

SARAH CALLESEN

Sarah Callesen is an interdisciplinary artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau, originally from Manawatū. She is currently completing a MFA part-time at Elam, University of Auckland. Her research based practice investigates the politics of recording, what is archived and what is absent, translation and information loss, with an interest in influential women hidden within the histories of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and early female artists working with STEM.

Callesen participated in Projects 2019 ‘Whanaungatanga’, collaborating with artist Rachel Ashby and 14 musicians in the performance ‘I wish to communicate with you’, which reinterpreted the nautical communication system the International Code of Symbols (ICS) to highlight the problematic idea of a universal language. For Projects 2018 she presented ‘Ground State’, a sound work which included underwater recordings taken from Queens Wharf during the day and night, and an accompanying large drawing made in response to the recordings.

Since the 2019 Art Fair she has exhibited lithographic prints at Sydney Contemporary with the Auckland Print Studio, and had a solo show at Audio Foundation. Titled ‘Drawing, Synopsis & Song’, the exhibition centred around the work of 17th century German astronomer and mathematician Maria Cunitz, who made a significant contribution to astronomy yet she is not commonly known. Callesen also referenced German conceptual artist Hanne Darboven, who devised a numerical system from which she created musical notation. The installation represented and reinterpreted found information through kinetic objects, sound, video, diagrams and drawings.The public programme included an artist talk with STEM educator and science communicator Carolle Varughese, one of few women to graduate with a BSc in Astronomy, in Aotearoa.

The artist has participated in group shows at RM, George Fraser and Projectspace galleries. A finalist in the Molly Morpeth Canaday Award, the Wallace Art Awards, and merit winner and multiple finalist in the Parkin Drawing Prize. Alongside her art practice Sarah works as a graphic designer, contributing to Designers Speak (Up), a platform initiated by Catherine Griffiths to highlight inequity in Aotearoa’s design industry, where only 6 women have been awarded the industry’s top prize out of 47 recipients, and majority pākehā.

 

www.sarahcallesen.com

https://www.instagram.com/sarah_callesen/

https://soundcloud.com/sarahcallesen

HIKALU CLARKE

Hikalu Clarke is based in Tāmaki Makaurau. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design and was co-developer of the institution’s DEMO project space. He recently completed a residency with Gasworks in London. Recent exhibitions include: New Perspectives, Artspace, Auckland, 2016; HOTEL DEVON ISLAND (with Rainer Weston), DEMO, Auckland, 2016; The Tomorrow People, Adam Art Gallery, Wellington, 2017; IT’S A POND NOT A MOAT, MEANWHILE, Wellington, 2017; Necessary Threat, Blue Oyster Art Project Space, Dunedin, 2017; and Accurate Community Projections, Te Tuhi, Auckland, 2018.

HARRY CULY

Harry Culy participated in Projects 2018.

FIGMENT

FIGMENT participated in Projects 2018.

EMIL MCAVOY

Emil McAvoy participated in Projects 2018.

PĀN¡A!

PĀNiA! is so cool. Her chosen anonymity has led to some daring guesswork. PĀNiA! is legendary. She is not a wholesale fiction. She is a real person. She is a mystery. PĀNiA! has a sense of humour and plays games. She intrigues. PĀNiA! achieves critical success and peer recognition without being seen. PĀNiA! is brilliant. She embodies a sentiment urgently applicable to our time – that love and trust go together. PĀNiA! is so cool. PĀNiA! is represented by Mokopōpaki, Auckland.

Image: PĀNiA!, Self Portrait, 2018. Acrylic, tape, wood chip, sand, glue, pāua shell, seaweed, sea sponge on canvas. 24 x 32.5 x 7cm. Courtesy of the artist and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo: Arekahānara.

JADE PARKS

Jade Parks participated in Projects 2018.

CHRISTINA PATAIALII

Christina Pataialii’s paintings operate between abstraction and representation, exploring the tensions that arise from merging culturally specific codes and visual languages. Pataialii’s practice moves through a series of spatial and material experimentations, navigating the relationship between proximity and distance as she explores aspects of identity and spaces of belonging.

Pataialii lives and works in Wellington. Recent solo exhibitions include: Home by Dark (2020) and Wouldn’t it be Nice, McLeavey Gallery (2019); Solid Gold, Te Tuhi, Auckland; Debt, RM Gallery, Auckland; Thoughts and Feelings, mother?, Auckland (all 2018). Recent group exhibitions include: A Place Apart, City Gallery Wellington- Te Whare Toi and This is a Library, Enjoy Contemporary Art Space, Wellington (2020).

KAREN RUBADO

Karen Rubado is an Auckland artist who is interested in the aggregation and transformation of found materials through hand-making. Her enthusiasm lies in the connections between intention and action, the real and imagined, and the imperfection that often characterises the handmade. Inspired by techniques of extemporising within a structure, her weaving practice encourages the unexpected and allows for spontaneity as a catalyst for discovery. She sees this as a subtle form of opposition to the authorial powers of tradition and the expectations emanating from both craft and contemporary art conventions.

ANGELA TIATIA

Angela Tiatia
Samoan and Australian, born in 1973 in Auckland, New Zealand. Lives and works in Sydney.

Angela Tiatia explores contemporary culture, drawing attention to its relationship to representation, gender, neo-colonialism and the commodification of the body and place, often through the lenses of history and popular culture.

Tiatia has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally. Her major solo exhibitions include Narcissus, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney (2019); The Fall, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne (2019); Tuvalu, The Australian Museum, Sydney (2019); Walking the Wall, GAGPROJECTS, Adelaide (2017): Soft Power, Alaska Projects, Sydney (2016); Survey / Fā’aliga, Māngere Arts Centre – Ngā Tohu o Uenuku, Auckland (2016).

Important institutional group exhibitions, include National Gallery of Victoria Triennal, VIC (2020); Archi-Plus, Art Gallery of New South Wales (2020); Southern Transmissions: Contemporary Video Art From Oceania, Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai (2020); Paul Gauguin, Why are you angry?, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Copenhagen, Denmark (2020); After Us The Deluge, Kunst Haus Wien, Museum Hundertwasser, Vienna, Austria (2020); From all points of the southern sky: photography from Australia and Oceania, Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona State College, Florida (2020); Refracted Reality, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Australia (2020). WATER, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2019/2020); Intercambio, Cuba Biennial, Havana (2019), Tūrangawaewae: Art and New Zealand, Toi Art, Gallery of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand (2018/2020); After the Fall, National Museum of Singapore (2017); Countercurrents, Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide (2017); Personal Structures, a collateral exhibition of the 57th Venice Biennial (2017); Under the Sun, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney (2017) and the Eighth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT8), Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2015/16).

Angela Tiatia’s work is held in numerous public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa; Australian War Memorial Museum, Canberra; and the Australian Museum, Sydney. She was awarded the prestigious Sidney Myer Creative Fellow (2019); Creative New Zealand Contemporary Pacific Artist Award (2018) and Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize (2018). Tiatia has been a finalist in numerous prestigious awards, including the Edinburgh Short Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival, Archibald Prize and Sir John Sulman Prize, and the John Fries Art Award.

HANNAH VALENTINE

Hannah Valentine holds a Master of Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts. Her practice explores questions of the body, movement, and participation. Recent exhibitions include: New Perspectives, Artspace, Auckland, 2016; Flex, Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, 2017; and Looking in, breathing out, Enjoy Public Art Gallery, 2018.

TIM WAGG

Tim Wagg (b. 1991, Masterton) is an artist currently based in Auckland, New Zealand. He graduated with with a BFA (Hons) from the University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts in 2013. Working across various mediums including video, installation, and digital printing, Wagg’s work explores the intersections of politics, identity and technology within the context of New Zealand. More specifically, his work considers the tangibility and intangibility of archives and histories, and examines the visual languages surrounding moments of political upheaval or change.

Selected shows include: Working Towards Meaning, Te Uru Gallery, Auckland (2020); Psychology For a Better World, curated by Victoria Wynne-Jones, Patara Gallery, Georgia (2018); The Order of Things, curated by Andrea Bell, Hocken Collections, Dunedin, (2018); The Tomorrow People, curated by Christina Barton, Stephen Cleland and Simon Gennard, Adam Art Gallery, Wellington, (2017); This Time of Useful Consciousness – Political Ecology Now, curated by Melanie Oliver, The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, (2017); False Paths, The Engine Room, Wellington, (2017); By the Laws of Chance, curated by Andrea Bell, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, (2016); NEW PERSPECTIVES with Simon Denny, Artspace, Auckland, (2016). Wagg was a Mccahon House Resident in 2019.