Inside Ngā Taonga Tūturu

This talk will explore the diverse approaches to portraiture currently on show in Prompts at Artspace Aotearoa and Ngā Taonga Tūturu: Treasured Māori Portraits at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. Join Kaitohu Director of Artspace Aotearoa Ruth Buchanan and Kaitiaki Matua, Toi Māori | Senior Curator, Māori Art, at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki , Nathan Pōhio as they consider the works on display at Artspace Aotearoa and Toi o Tāmaki, respectively. Artspace Aotearoa offers insights into UK-based Lubaina Himid and sculptural work from Michael Parekōwhai alongside taonga whakairo and the portraits by Gottfried Lindauer from the collections of Toi o Tāmaki. This exchange will explore how portraiture continues to evolve as a complex expression of subjecthood in Te Ao Māori and in contemporary art.

This event will take place at the Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Art Gallery Auditorium, booking is available on their website and at the link above.

BIOGRAPHIES

Ruth Buchanan is an artist of Taranaki and currently Kaitohu Director at Artspace Aotearoa. She works across exhibition making, writing, design, and teaching. She has realised significant exhibitions and commissioned works with Govett Brewster Art Gallery, Ngamotu New Plymouth; Kunstmuseum Basel | Gegenwart; The New Commissioners, Mochengladback; Te Pataka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington; Badischer Kunsterverin, Karlsruhe; Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Art Gallery; MASP, Sao Paolo; Gwangju Biennale (8); Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; The Showroom, London; and Tate Modern, London. In 2018 she was awarded the Walters Prize by international judge Adriano Pedrosa.

Nathan Pōhio (Waitaha, Kāti Mamoe, Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu, Tau Iwi) is Kaitiaki Matua, Toi Māori, Senior Curator, Māori Art at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. An artist as well as a curator, Nathan worked at Te Puna o Waiwhetū Christchurch Art Gallery from 2002–21 as technician, exhibition designer from 2004, and assistant curator from 2015. Between 2016 and 2021 he curated significant exhibitions including He Rau Maharataka Whenua: A Memory of Land with Ta Tipene O’Regan; Te Rua o Te Moko; co-curated Te Wheke: Pathways Across Oceania; Ralph Hotere: Ātete, to Resist; and curated Te Puna Waiora: The Distinguished Weavers of Te Kahui Whiritoi. At the Gallery, Nathan has curated Toi Te Kupu: Whakaahuatanga a two-day hui on Māori art, 2022, and he was the coordinating curator for Ever Present: First Peoples Art of Australia (2022). He developed and co-curator of Ngā Taonga Tūturu: Treasured Māori Portraits. With 2015 SCAPE Public Art Commission Raise the anchor, unfurl the sails, set course for the centre of an ever setting sun! Nathan was nominated for the Walters Prize 2016 and exhibited at Documenta14 in Greece and Germany, 2017.