Michael Stevenson

Nine Lives Exhibition Michael Stevenson is one of New Zealand's most successful artists working in the international art arena. He has had artist residencies in New York and Berlin, has represented New Zealand in the 2002 Biennale of Sydney and was a finalist in the 1997 Seppelt Contemporary Art Prize, Sydney, Australia and the inaugural 2002 Walters Prize.

He was selected to represent New Zealand at the 2003 Venice Biennale. His installation, This is the Trekka, was curated by Robert Leonard and Boris Kremer. The work presents a comparative study of industry and society in New Zealand during the 1960s and 1970s.
Curator Robert Leonard writes, for the exhibition:
'Mimicry is at the heart of MICHAEL STEVENSON'S work. He first made his name as a conspiracy theorist, arguing outrageous connections between radical art and ultra-right-wing politics. The work reflected his Pentecostal upbringing, where art was suspected of being in bed with the devil. After moving to Melbourne in the mid-1990s, Stevenson founded Slave Pianos with Danius Kesminas, Neil Kelly and Rohan Drape... Stevenson's recent archival projects uncover bizarre links between art history and social history, between micro and macro-histories. Call Me Immendorff tracked media response to German painter Jorg Immendorff's 1987-8 Auckland artist's residency - the wine, the women, the death threat - against the concurrent stock market crash and the subsequent fall of the Berlin Wall. Stevenson's expose addressed provincialism: New Zealand's desire to experience an overseas art star was matched by Immendorff's willingness to be one.' Leonard's full wall text is displayed at the AAG during Nine Lives.