Michael Parekōwhai
Michael Te Rakato Parekōwhai is a New Zealand sculptor and a professor at the University of Auckland's Elam School of Fine Arts. He is of Ngāriki Rotoawe and Ngāti Whakarongo descent and his mother is Pākehā. Parekōwhai was awarded an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award in 2001. He represented New Zealand at the 2011 Venice Biennale.
Early life
Parekōwhai 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, Parekōwhai 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. He trained as a high-school art teacher before returning to Elam to complete a Master's degree in fine arts.Themes and style
Parekōwhai makes a variety of work across a range of media that intersects sculpture and photography. Sally Blundell, writing in the New Zealand Listener, says:Despite the range of Parekōwhai'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.
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.
- 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.The World Turns – a life-sized bronze elephant tipped on its head and eye-to-eye with a kuril, commissioned by the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art. 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. 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.The Lighthouse: Tū Whenua-a-Kura – Queens Wharf, Auckland
- ''The Tongue of The Dog, outside Waikato Museum, Hamilton, New Zealand''
Exhibitions
Group
- 1990 Choice! Artspace, Auckland
- 1992 Headlands: Thinking Through New Zealand Art, 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
- 2014–2015 Black Rainbow, Te Papa, Wellington
Selected works
Atarangi 1990 Kiss the Baby Good Bye 1994 They Comfort Me Too 1994 Poorman, Beggarman, Thief 1996 The Bosom of Abraham 1999 Passchendaele, from the series The consolation of philosophy 2001 Tua Whitu 2002 My Sister Myself 2006 Cosmo McMurtry 2006 He Kōrero Pūrākau mo te Awanui o Te Motu: Story of a New Zealand river 2011 Chapman’s Homer 2011 The English Channel 2015Collections
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|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.