Giovanni Intra

	Untitled 1995-6 acrylic on gesso on paper 2800 x 2800 overall

Giovanni Intra was born in Auckland in 1968, graduating Master of Fine Arts from the University of Auckland in 1993. He was a founding member of the artist-run Teststrip Gallery, Auckland (1992-97) and studied, wrote about art and ran a contemporary art space in Los Angeles from 1996 until his death last year at the age of 34. 

Curator Robert Leonard writes, for the exhibition:

From 1990, when he completed his BFA at Elam, to 1996, when he left the country to study in the States, GIOVANNI INTRA'S precocious, intellectually and artistically ambitious practice brought a new nexus of concerns and strategies into play in New Zealand art. His big idea was that subculture - exemplified by surrealism, situationism and punk - introduced a healthy dose of disorder into the system. Intra's celebration of punk style was exemplified by his 1990 studded suit. Where Joseph Beuys cut himself a dour grey felt suit to exemplify his job of artist-as-healer, Intra's uniform was part punk, part S&M, part Liberace, and very K Road. Dazzling, like the night sky, it suggested some kind of shamanistic transfiguration...

Leonard's full wall text is displayed at the AAG during Nine Lives.