Contemporary Māori Artists at the Aotearoa Art Fair 2026

Contemporary Māori artists are among the most vital voices shaping the cultural landscape of Aotearoa today. Working across mediums, these artists create work that is both deeply rooted and forward-looking. Continue reading to learn more about of the contemporary Māori artists showing at the Aotearoa Art Fair.

Reuben Paterson

Presented by Bergman Gallery, Auckland and Rarotonga

Reuben Paterson (Ngāti Rangitihi, Ngāi Tūhoe, Tūhourangi) presents work spanning painting and sculpture that continues his long-standing exploration of glitter, reflective surfaces, and layered pattern. His visually hypnotic and conceptually nuanced works examine identity, genealogy, and the circulation of cultural forms. Paterson’s dynamic practice, celebrated for more than two decades, has established him as a leading artist of his generation, widely exhibited in Aotearoa and internationally.

Shane Cotton

Presented by Gow Langsford, Auckland

Shane Cotton (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Rangi, Ngāti Hine, Te Uri Taniwha) presents paintings that explore spirituality, symbolism, and bicultural identity through a distinctive visual language. Cotton’s works often bring together text, birds, landscapes, and abstract elements to examine histories, belief systems, and cultural exchange. Internationally exhibited and widely collected, Cotton remains one of the most influential painters working in Aotearoa today.

Robert Jahnke

Presented by PAULNACHE, Gisborne

Robert Jahnke (Ngāi Taharōrā, Te Whānau-a-Iritekura, Ngāti Porou) presents multimedia works spanning sculpture and light-based installations. His practice frequently addresses Māori identity, colonial history, and cultural memory, often using text and light as symbolic devices. Jahnke’s work reflects a long career as both an artist and educator shaping contemporary Māori art in Aotearoa.

Rangi Kipa

Presented by Melanie Roger Gallery, Auckland

Rangi Kipa (Te Ātiawa, Taranaki, Ngāti Tama ki te Tauihu) presents sculptural works that investigate how customary Māori language systems, materials, and carving traditions can be re-envisaged in dialogue between past and present. A sculptor, carver, illustrator, and tā moko practitioner, Kipa’s work ranges from intimate objects to monumental public projects, giving form to Māori cultural aspirations in contemporary contexts.

Lonnie Hutchinson

Presented by Milford Galleries, Dunedin and Queenstown

Lonnie Hutchinson (Ngāi Tahu, Samoan) presents multidisciplinary works that may include installation, sculpture, and her distinctive cut-paper forms. Drawing on motifs from Pacific and Māori visual traditions alongside contemporary imagery, her work confronts social and political issues and explores identity, gender, and cultural history through bold and immersive forms.

Shannon Te Ao

Presented by Coastal Signs, Auckland

Shannon Te Ao (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Wairangi, Te Pāpaka-o-Māui) presents a new edition of large-scale photographs from an ongoing series. These works depict blurred figures suspended in indeterminate, inky space, created on film against rear-projected landscapes connected to the artist’s whenua and whanaunga. Viewed as if through night-darkened windows, the figure appears like a premonition or apparition, inhabiting a liminal state between visibility and invisibility, between human and not-human. The Aotearoa Art Fair marks the debut of this new body of work.

Aotearoa Art Fair 2026 takes place from 30 April – 3 May at the Viaduct Events Centre, Auckland. First Release tickets are on sale now – buy online.