New Zealand at the Venice Biennale

Huge congratulations to Mataaho Collective who overnight have won the Golden Lion for Best Participant at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere.

This extraordinary win positions this collective of four wāhine Māori, who make work with one single authorship, amongst the world's most interesting and highly regarded today. Creative New Zealand congratulates the artists. Te Papa originally commissioned the winning work, Takapau in 2022.

"‘Wastelands’ continues themes from my recent exhibition ‘Tai Moana Tai Tangata’ and is also a homage to my Father’s sculptures from the 70’s, that were made in my childhood."

Brett Graham reflects on his new work, 'Wastelands', made for Biennale Art 2024. He is one of five New Zealand artists invited by International Exhibition Curator, Adriano Pedrosa, to exhibit in Stranieri Ovunque - Foreigners Everywhere at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.

The Venice Biennale preview opens today, and the International Exhibition features the work of Brett Graham, Fred Graham, Sandy Adsett, Mataaho Collective and Selwyn Wilson.

Read more here: https://ow.ly/j6M650Ri6Ls

Te Papa Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki

Tomorrow, Yuki Kihara's opens at the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (Powerhouse Museum) in Sydney. It was first shown as New Zealand's representative at the 2022 Venice Biennale. Yuki sat down to discuss Samoa's third and fourth culturally recognised genders, her fa'afafine version of paradise, and discovering evidence that suggest Paul Gauguin incorporated Samoan people and places into his Tahitian painting series. 🌺

Via Tim Stone & The Art Newspaper

Yuki Kihara: the photographer upending the cultural legacy of Paul Gauguin’s Tahitian paintings Ahead of her show at Sydney's Powerhouse Ultimo, the Japanese-Samoan artist tells us about the importance of exhibiting at the Venice Biennale and how she created a third-gender paradise

Ahead of the 2023 Australian premiere of Paradise Camp at the Powerhouse Museum, Art + Australia looks back on this fa'fa'fabulous exhibition with Yuki Kihara and curator Natalie King.

Check out the article at the link below 👇🏾
http://ow.ly/wtyh50MvLaH

The future is bright for New Zealand at the Venice Biennale as Creative New Zealand makes a long-term commitment to a New Zealand presence at this culturally significant event.

Read more on the website http://ow.ly/HBM250M8Zp5

Powerhouse announced the Australian premiere of Paradise Camp by Yuki Kihara ; co-commissioned by Powerhouse and Creative New Zealand, and curated by Natalie King OAM.

Powerhouse Announces Yuki Kihara: Paradise Camp The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences is Australia's contemporary museum for excellence and innovation in applied arts and sciences.

Yuki Kihara sits down with Helen Ha from the Seattle Asian Art Museum to talk about the ideas and processes behind Paradise Camp

"The origin of “Paradise” derives from the biblical story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, which forms the foundation of how the West sees itself as being heteronormative where these ideas were imposed upon “others” through the process of colonialism."

Artist Yuki Kihara on Performing Paradise and Finding Sanctuaries - SAMBlog Before her artist talk on December 10 as part of the 2022–2023 Saturday University lecture series, Haley Ha, SAM Manager of Public Engagement at the Seattle Asian Art Museum, interviewed Kihara about the ideas and process behind Paradise Camp, the impacts of climate change in the global south, and...

"Layered with visual and conceptual ambiguity, Yuki Kihara’s photographs, video and texts point to (or jab at) the limitations associated with illogical binary views of people, cultures and the world."

Read Artlink's full review of Paradise Camp at the link below:

Pimp my Gauguin: Yuki Kihara's Paradise Camp (or Why Post Impressions Matter). Layered with visual and conceptual ambiguity, Yuki Kihara’s photographs, video and texts point to (or jab at) the limitations associated with illogical binary views of people, cultures and the world. Disturbing the Eurocentric notion of the canon, Kihara’s installation Paradise Camp, curated by ...

A chapter published in Un magazine Issue 16.2, edited by Natalie King, highlights the Paradise Camp Reading Group which was conducted during the Aotearoa lockdown in 2020.

Read the article here! 👇🏽

Paradise Camp Reading Group – un During severe lockdown in 2020, a group of us formed a Pacific Reading Group comprising Yuki Kihara (interdisciplinary artist who is representing Aotearoa New Zealand at 59th Venice Biennale 2022), Natalie King (curator of Yuki Kihara: Paradise Camp), Ioana Gordon-Smith (Wellington-based assistant c...

🌺On December 10th, Yuki Kihara is presenting a virtual talk about Paradise Camp at the Seattle Asian Art Museum 🌺

Join the talk from the comfort of your own home by buying a virtual ticket here 👇🏽
https://www.seattleartmuseum.org/visit/calendar/events?eventid=85630

📸: Luke Walker

The Venice Biennale may be over, but the stunning reviews of Paradise Camp keep coming!

From ArtsNews: "It is evident that what caught people’s attention wasn’t just Paradise Camp’s politics. It was also its vibrancy and irreverent humour."

Read the full article http://ow.ly/fELY50LS02G

And that's a wrap! 🥂The 59th Venice Biennale closes on Sunday 27 Nov after an incredible 7 months. Huge congratulations to Yuki Kihara, "one of the most remarkable names to emerge from this year's Venice Biennale" and her game-changing exhibition Paradise Camp.

Congratulations to Curator Natalie King, Assistant Curator Ioana Gordon-Smith, and all the people involved in making Paradise Camp such a fabulous success.

Special thanks to our Commissioner Caren Rangi, exhibition team Diego and Amber, and our partners University of Samoa, Digital Arts Network, Te Papa, Powerhouse Museum, Tautai, Pataka Foundation, Anita Gigi Budai, Exhibition Designer, and Gui Taccetti, Production Assistant to Yuki Kihara.

Thanks also to sponsors Saletonga Sands, Milford Galleries, and Elephant Hill. And to all our other wonderful supporters including Leigh Melville, Claire Chamberlain & the NZ at Venice Patrons, Sutton PR, and designer Ashlea O’Neill, and publishers Thames & Hudson.

Read the full wrap-up http://ow.ly/mwsY50LNjPx.

Come along to hear Yuki Kihara discuss her exhibition Paradise Camp at the Aotearoa Art Fair in Auckland!

When: 1.30pm, Friday 18 November

Where: Aotearoa Art Fair, Milford Galleries Dunedin & Queenstown, STAND A6

Find out more artfair.co.nz

Yuki Kihara has a new series called 'Going Native' which opens on 1 November at Museum Volkenkunde in the Netherlands.

‘Going Native’ is an ongoing project exploring issues of cross-cultural exchanges and representations, including cultural identities in the contemporary and non-Indigenous constructions of the Pacific.

Commissioned by the National Museum of World Cultures and presented at the Museum Volkenkunde (National Museum of Ethnology), 'Going Native' is part of the Taking Care Project co-funded by the Creative Europe Program of the European Union.

📷: 'Te hono ki Aotearoa: The Link To New Zealand' as part of 'Going Native' (2018/2022) series. Photo: Wonu Veys.

📷: Yuki Kihara, Biennale Arte 2022. Photo: Luke Walker.

Another fantastic review of Paradise Camp.

"The project unravels colonial histories intersecting with gender politics and environment concerns, featuring a cast of Sāmoan Fa’afafine, and repurposing paintings by Paul Gauguin that are believed to have been inspired by Sāmoan people. Ironically, as the artist remarked, “the value of an artwork of the painter is three times the GDP of my country”.

"Despite this, the artist does not allow themselves to be discouraged, but, on the contrary, they regain the fame of the old white European male artist turning him into a beacon not only for their [Fa’afafine] own work but for the denounce of gender and colonial subordination which, without the conqueror, it might never have existed. In the artist’s words: “Maybe I am just using him as a catalyst to get what I want”.'

Read the full article http://ow.ly/2Y8450L9Mxg

📷Two Fa‘afafine on the beach (After Gauguin), 2020. Image courtesy of the Yuki Kihara.

The Political Aesthetic of Bridging Worlds - Terremoto For the 59th edition of the Venice International Art Exhibition, the Nordic Pavilion (Norway, Sweden and Finland) turned into the Sami Pavilion in recognition of the Sami sovereignty movement. The pavilion featured Pauliina Feodoroff, Máret Ánne Sara and Anders Sunna, three indigenous artists orig...

A reminder about the in-person component of the Talonoa Forum: Swimming Against the Tide.

Here's the details:

The three-day in-person talanoa in Venice organized by Artist Yuki Kihara has been developed in close partnership with Francesca Tarocco, Director of THE NEW INSTITUTE Centre for Environmental Humanities (NICHE), art historian Cristina Baldacci and curator Natalie King.

By engaging with the urgent themes of the Paradise Camp exhibition, the talanoa will explore the intertwinements of artistic, legal, writing and curatorial perspectives on this socially engaged and multifaceted project; to how artists, curators, and scholars unsettle the boundaries between art and ethnography by highlighting reparation and restitution practices; and a discussion around the theme of water in its multiple material, social, legal and political forms, including attributing legal personhood to water ecologies.

The in-person talanoa in Venice is presented in collaboration with the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and with Fondazione Querini Stampalia.

Click to find out more https://www.talanoaforum.ws/

The next online talanoa in Talanoa Forum: Swimming Against the Tide is this Thursday 29 September at 7pm (NZ time)!

"Pacific Ocean Personhood" will feature a panel discussion with artists, policymakers, and legal experts to explore what ethical, cultural, and legal frameworks need to be considered in giving personhood status to the Pacific Ocean.

Featuring Dame Meg Taylor, Tuiloma Neroni Slade, Michelle Bender, Katerina Teaiwa, and Joy Enomoto moderated by Lelei Lelaulu, this promises to be a brilliant discussion!

Find out more here https://www.talanoaforum.ws/
And in case you missed it, you can catch the first talanoa of the series here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdXhZelo3oA&t=1425s

Online talanoa — Talanoa forum 2022 Talanoa is a pan-Pacific word that describes a process of inclusive, participatory and transparent dialogue. Using talanoa as a point of conceptual departure, Talanoa forum is an artist-led gathering that aggregates artists, curators, scholars, activists, community leaders and policymakers to exte...

Leading the way! So great to see Paradise Camp curator Natalie King featuring on the cover of Domain Review.

Of Yuki's work at the Venice Biennale, Natalie says, "It's the first time a Pasifika, transgender and indigenous artist has been selected. I had seen Yuki's work over the years. I fangirled her on social media and she eventually agreed - with persistence on my behalf."
Read the full article here http://ow.ly/BvSh50KTGr9

Some wonderful news for Yuki Kihara and the Mata Aho Collective who have been announced in the first grouping of artists at the 14th Gwangju Biennale!

The Biennale will open in April 2023 and is curated by Tate Modern senior curator Sook-Kyung Lee.

Read more here bit.ly/3LziiEO

Join Yuki Kihara online and in-person for the Talanoa Forum: Swimming Against the Tide!

Yuki has organised the Talanoa Forum to extend the themes of her exhibition Paradise Camp, curated by Natalie King, with talanoa around small island ecologies, intersectionality, oceanhood, colonisation and collections.

See you there!

Learn more at www.talanoaforum.ws

Check out the latest issue of Beaux Arts magazine featuring 'Paradise Camp'!

Don’t miss your opportunity to hear Natalie King, curator of Yuki Kihara’s Paradise Camp, in a free public forum on Thursday 1 September!

Hosted by the University of Melbourne, register now for an insight into how Yuki and Natalie flipped the script at the Venice Biennale: http://ow.ly/FnsJ50KsFqp

📷 Natalie King, Biennale Arte 2022. Photo: Luke Walker

"Kihara attempts to challenge and undermine colonial images of Sāmoa through a radical camp aesthetic (as alluded to in the pavilion’s title). The artist offers a new term for imagining a camp notion of paradise defined by Pasifika Indigenous communities: “In-drag-enous.”"

Read more of Hyperallergic's review of 'Paradise Camp' here:

Celebrating Sāmoa's Third Gender Through Radical Camp With Paradise Camp, artist Yuki Kihara attempts to challenge and undermine colonial images of Sāmoa through a radical camp aesthetic.