View Past Exhibitions by Robyn Kahukiwa – Click on the links below to go to the page of each individual exhibition:

“Upoko Tapu/Sacred Head” 2017,  “Tangata Whenua” 2015,  “Wahine me Tamariki” 2014,  Nga Atua – 2012,  “Power to Define” – 2009, “Supa Heroes” 2007

Robyn Kahukiwa – As a prominent Maori artist, Robyn Kahukiwa has established a strong connection between art and politics, augmenting the current Maori cultural renaissance. Australian born, Kahukiwa lost her connection with her culture and family until re-establishing her ties on her return to New Zealand. The rediscovery of her Maori heritage was fundamental to her beginning as an artist. Events of the mid-1970s including the Hikoi (Land March on Parliament) and the passing of the Treaty of Waitangi Act encouraged her interest in issues relevant to the Maori. In each case, the work she has completed since her early career as an artist ‘has marked a stage in the process of reclaiming and affirming identity’(1).

Kahukiwa has a considerable interest in connecting with the Maori community and specifically with the rangitahi (young Maori people) through her work. In 1972 she was employed as an art teacher at Mana College, Porirua. During this time she focused on sharing her cultural experiences with younger people. ‘Painting from her experience, and as a largely self-taught artist, initially meant empathizing with her Maori and Pacific Island students’ sense of alienation, urbanization, detribalization and cultural dislocation and disorientation, and delineating images of the ‘outsider’ in a painfully sincere form of realism’(2).

1. Jonathan Mane-Wheoki, “Robyn Kahukiwa: My Ancestors are with me Always”, Art New Zealand, 75, Winter 1995. 61.
2. Ibid

Biography

Recent Highlights:  Robyn Kahukiwa needs little introduction as one of the foremost Maori artists in NZ.  Te Papa museum hold 23 Kahukiwa works in their collection and the ACAG have several major works.

Kahukiwa was included in the major exhibition at the ACAG “Five Maori Painters (22.2.14 to 15.6.2014) and Wahine Waitangi which toured NZ in 2016 and 2017.

“Wahine Waitangi” touring exhibition 2016-2017

“Five Maori Painters” Auckland City Art Gallery (22 Feb to 15th June 2014).

Collections include:

Te Papa

Auckland Art Gallery

MFAT

Recent Solo Exhibitions:

2017 Robyn Kahukiwa “Upoko Tapu/Sacred Head”

2015 Tangata Whenua, Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland

2014 Wahine me Tamariki, Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland

2013 Auckland Art Fair

2012 Ngā Atua, Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland

2009 Power to Define, Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland

2007 Super Heroes for my Mokopuna, Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland

2005 Difference Celebrated, WHG, Auckland

2004 NZ Natives, WHG, Auckland

2003 Whanau Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland