Michael Parekōwhai Explained

Michael Parekōwhai
Birth Name:	Michael Te Rakato Parekōwhai
Birth Place:	Porirua, New Zealand
Alma Mater:	Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland
Movement:	Installation art, conceptual art
Awards:	Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award in 2001

Michael Te Rakato Parekōwhai (born 1968) is a New Zealand sculptor and a professor at the University of Auckland's Elam School of Fine Arts.^[1] He is of Ngāriki Rotoawe and Ngāti Whakarongo descent^[2] and his mother is Pākehā.^[3]

Parekowhai was awarded an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award in 2001. He represented New Zealand at the 2011 Venice Biennale.^[4]

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 University of Auckland's Elam School of Fine Arts (1987–1990). He trained as a high-school art teacher before returning to Elam to complete a Master'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.^[2]

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 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.^[5]

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.^[6]
• 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.^[7]
• The World Turns – a life-sized bronze elephant tipped on its head and eye-to-eye with a kuril (water-rat), commissioned by the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art.^{[8] [9]}
• 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.^[10] 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 and Jim Allen.
• The English Channel – a sculpture of Captain James Cook in a contemplative pose, held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.^[11]
• The Lighthouse: Tū Whenua-a-Kura – Queens Wharf, Auckland^{[12] [13]}
• The Tongue of The Dog, outside Waikato Museum, Hamilton, New Zealand^[14]

Exhibitions

GallerySolo

• 2017 Détour, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.^[15]
• 2015 The Promised Land Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Brisbane, Australia.^[16]
• 2013 The Past in the Present, Michael Lett at the Auckland Art Fair, Auckland
• 2012 On First Looking into Chapman's Homer, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, Christchurch.^[17]
• 2011 54th Venice Biennale 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^[18]
• 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, Auckland
• 1992 , Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
• 1995–1996 Cultural Safety City Gallery Wellington and Frankfurter Kunstverein
• 2004 'Paradise Now? Contemporary Art from the Pacific at Asia Society & Museum New York, NY
• Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, Australia (APT3 1999, APT5 2006 & APT7 2012)
• 2014–2015 Black Rainbow, Te Papa, Wellington^[19]

Selected works

• Atarangi 1990 view 
• Kiss the Baby Good Bye 1994 view 
• They Comfort Me Too 1994 view 
• Poorman, Beggarman, Thief (Beggaman) 1996  view 
• The Bosom of Abraham 1999 view  
• Passchendaele, from the series The consolation of philosophy 2001 view 
• Tua Whitu 2002 view 
• My Sister Myself 2006 view 
• Cosmo McMurtry 2006 view 
• He Kōrero Pūrākau mo te Awanui o Te Motu: Story of a New Zealand river 2011 view 
• Chapman’s Homer 2011 view
• The English Channel 2015 view

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 and the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney.

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.

See also

• List of public art in Brisbane

Further reading

• Maud Page et al., Michael Parekowhai : the promised land, Brisbane: Queensland Art Gallery, 2015.
• Mary Barr (ed), On first looking into Chapman's Homer : New Zealand at the 54th Biennale di Venezia 2011, Auckland: Michael Lett and Roslyn Oxley Gallery, 2011.
• Michael Lett and Ryan Moore (eds), Michael Parekowhai, Auckland: Michael Lett, 2007.
• Margery King and Ngahiraka Mason, Michael Parekowhai: Ten Guitars, Pittsburgh: Andy Warhol Museum, 2001.
• Robert Leonard, Michael Parekowhai: Ten Guitars, Auckland: Artspace, 1999.
• Robert Leonard and Lara Strongman, Michael Parekowhai: Kiss the baby goodbye, New Plymouth: Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, 1994.

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 'Review: Michael Parekowhai's Promised Land delivers plenty' 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

Notes and References

1. Web site: Professor Michael Te Rakato Parekowhai . Creative Arts and Industries . University of Auckland . 15 June 2019.
2. Blundell . Sally . Michael Parekowhai interview . 14 May 2011 . New Zealand Listener . Noted . 15 June 2019.
3. Web site: Michael Parekowhai . Robert . Leonard . 2003 . robertleonard.org . Robert Leonard . 15 June 2019.
4. Encyclopedia: Michael Parekowhai at the Venice Biennale . Stocker . Mark . Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand . 22 October 2014 . 15 June 2019.
5. Web site: Special Agent Michael Parekowhai's Generous Duplicity. Art New Zealand. 13 June 2015.
6. Web site: Sculpture and installation art - Māori sculptors. Stocker. Mark. 22 Oct 2014. Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. en. 2019-05-19.
7. Web site: Michael Parekōwhai's 'A Peak in Darien' sets $2m+ New Zealand art auction record. 2021-11-14. NZ Herald. en-NZ.
8. http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/milliondollar-mammoth-makes-minister-mad-20121016-27pfs.html "Million-dollar mammoth makes minister mad"
9. http://statements.qld.gov.au/Statement/2011/11/26/artist-named-for-1m-sculpture-commission-at-goma-5th-birthday-party "ARTIST NAMED FOR $1M SCULPTURE COMMISSION AT GOMA 5TH BIRTHDAY PARTY"
10. Web site: He Korero Purakau mo Te Awanui o Te Motu: story of a New Zealand river, 2011. Ocula. 13 June 2015.
11. Web site: Michael Parekowhai: The English Channel . 2024-04-07 . . en.
12. Web site: The Lighthouse lights up this Saturday . 10 February 2017 . Auckland Council . 12 February 2017.
13. Web site: The Lighthouse / Tū Whenua-a-Kura . Auckland Public Art . Auckland Council . 17 December 2020.
14. Web site: Sculpture a talking point. Shontelle Campbell. Hamilton News. November 2016.
15. Web site: Détour by Michael Parekowhai . 6 October 2023.
16. Book: Michael Parekowhai: The Promised Land. 2015. Queensland Art Gallery. Brisbane. 978-1-921503-74-0. 1st.
17. Web site: Michael Parekowhai: On First Looking into Chapman's Homer. 2012. 4 January 2015. Christchurch Art Gallery.
18. Web site: Michael Parekowhai. One Day Sculpture. 13 June 2015.
19. Web site: Black Rainbow. Te Uru. 13 June 2015.