Michael Parekowhai

Michael Parekowhai was born in Porirua, New Zealand in 1968. He lives in Auckland. His Maori tribal affiliations are Nga-Ariki, Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki, Rongowhakaata. Selected solo exhibitions include the 1999 Ten Guitars exhibition at Artspace, Auckland, NZ that later was shown at the Asia Pacific Triennial, 1999, Brisbane, Australia and in 2001 at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, USA. The Beverly Hills Gun Club series was first shown in 2000 in Auckland and his series titled The Consolation of Philosophy/Piko Nei Te Matenga 2001 was shown at the Sydney Biennale in 2002. 

Curator Robert Leonard writes, for the exhibition:

'Unveiled in Choice!, 1990's alternative contemporary Maori art show, MICHAEL PAREKOWHAI's sculptures were surprising. They didn't feature traditional Maori images, techniques or methods. In fact they looked suspiciously international, and yet they opened up a world of Maori implications. Rather than wearing Maoriness on his sleeve, Parekowhai appropriated images from Pakeha culture, subtly recoding them to speak of Maori concerns. And Parekowhai did this at a time when there was huge anxiety over Pakeha appropriating things Maori. Much of Parekowhai's work referred to childhood generally, and his own childhood specifically. He monumentalised toys, games and models. Adding titles, often biblical ones, he represented them on adult scale as adult conundrums. Letter blocks, cuisenaire rods, pick-up sticks, shape blocks and kitset models were allegorised as spiritual manuals and history lessons. In recent years Parekowhai's childhood nostalgia has transmuted into memorialism. His works with stuffed rabbits and sparrows superimpose spaghetti westerns and Beatrix Potter onto local colonial history...' Leonard's full wall text is displayed at AAG during Nine Lives.