The Good Oil

In this episode, I sit down with Lisa Reihana at her studio in Tāmaki Makaurau.

This episode is part of a series I’m delivering this season for the McCahon House Parehuia Residency, celebrating their 20th Anniversary, where I’m volunteering the services of The Good Oil to highlight the wonderful and important work they do, and some of their very impressive alumni, which includes Lisa.

Lisa holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts, and a Master of Design from School of Visual Art and Design, Unitec Institute of Technology. In the 2018 New Year Honours, Lisa was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to art.

Her work is held in numerous public and private collections, including the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, The National Gallery of Australia, The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and the The Staatliche Museum in Berlin.

She has also been the recipient of several art prizes and residencies, including of course being Alumni of the McCahon House Parehuia residency, and represented Aotearoa at the 2017 Venice Biennale

All of those are just some of the proof points that Lisa is conducting one of Aotearoa’s most impressive and well recognised practices, often on an international stage.

Lisa is represented by Page Galleries in Te Wanganui-a-Tara Wellington.

There are images of the works that we talk about on The Good Oil Lisa Reihana Instagram Post for your reference.

In the episode, you’ll hear about the role of costumes in her practice, how the street she grew up on created a kind of empathic privilege she has transferred into the practice, how important it is that she invites tamariki into the work as well as adults, and the generous approach she takes to collaboration.

In this episode, I visit Shane Cotton in his studio in Te Tai Tokerau.

Shane is Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Rangi, Ngāti Hine and Te Uri Taniwha. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts fro the Ilam School of Fine Art at the University of Canterbury, and a Diploma in Teaching from the Christchurch Collage of Education.

He has over 60 solo shows to his name, and a similar number of group shows, with several of those being public exhibitions. There is also a very long list of collection inclusions, including, but by no means limited to, The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, The National Gallery of Australia, The Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu, The National Gallery of Victoria, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, along with being awarded several art prizes and residencies. He was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the visual arts in 2012.

Shane is represented by Gow Langsford Gallery in Tāmaki Makaurau.

There are images of the works that we talk about on The Good Oil Shane Cotton Instagram Post for your reference. Although, a heads up, this doesn't include what were works in progress you’ll hear us talking about in the studio - more on when and where you can see those at the end of the episode.

A quick correction - you’ll hear me refer to a painting of his as ‘Baseline’ - the correct title of that work is ‘Baseland’.

In the episode, you’ll hear Shane talk about what he did and didn’t understand about painting when he arrived at art school, a moment that made him realise the diversity and monumental scope of Maori history and art history that set a path for him as a painter, his natural want to constantly be moving the practice stylistically, why there is a continued investigation of mokomokai as a subject, a sustained interest in painting tiki subjects as a way to explore carving outcomes with paint, and how those tiki paintings are a kind of ongoing way to complete the absence of a lot of art work in Nga Puhi marae.

In this episode, I sit down with Brendon Leung.

Brendon has a Bachelor of Design and Visual Arts and a Master of Design, both from the Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland.

Brendon has several solo and group exhibitions to his name, including most recently at the Aotearoa Art Fair with Trish Clark. He has been the recipient of the The Karekare House Residency and has won the The Siddell Memorial Award at the Eden Arts Young Artists Awards, and his work is held in, and exhibited at, the Arts House Trust at Pah Homestead, and, surprise surprise, I’m a huge fan of his work too.

There are images of the works that we talk about on The Good Oil Brendon Leung Instagram Post for your reference.

You’ll hear Brendon talk about how he wants the materials and often found supports to present their histories and have a direct presence in the paintings, that his mothers cooking advice has found its way into his painting practice, the Eastern and Buddhist philosophy that he wants to embody in the work and how, despite the practice being abstract, how he tries to make paintings like people by building a sense of character into them.

In this episode, I sit down with Cora-Allan Twiss at her studio in Tāmaki Makaurau.

This episode is part of a series I’m delivering this season for the McCahon House Parehuia Residency, celebrating their 20th Anniversary, where I’m volunteering the services of The Good Oil to highlight the wonderful and important work they do, and some of their very impressive alumni, which includes Cora-Allan.

Cora-Allan completed a Bachelor of Visual Art and Design (in photography) in 2007 and completed her master's degree in visual art and design (in performance) from Auckland University of Technology in 2013.

Her work is held in numerous public and private collections, including Te Papa Tongarewa, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, Otago Museum, National Museum of Scotland, Auckland Museum, New Bedford Whaling Museum, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki in the Chartwell Collection and the Adam Art Gallery Collection.

Cora-Allan is represented by The Central Gallery in Ōtotahi Christchurch.

There are images of the works that we talk about on The Good Oil Cora-Allan Twiss Instagram Post for your reference.

We spend a good chunk of this chat discussing hiapo. For the uninitiated, hiapo encompasses the Niuean tradition of tapa cloth making, including the creation of the cloth itself, the application of inks to add patterns, motifs and figurative elements that appear on the cloth. Not to be confused with Siapo, the Samoan tapa cloth tradition.

In the episode, you’ll hear her talk about how important materials are in facilitating a connection to family and Niuean community, not least of all, tea towels, the nuances of sharing knowledge of the hiapo tradition, her very personal, but almost unintentional beginnings, of a hiapo practice that now defines who she is, and, I think one of the most unexpected, but fantastic and romantic answers I have ever got to that final question I always ask.

In this episode, I sit down with Emma Fitts at Melanie Roger Gallery in Tāmaki Makaurau.

This episode is part of a series I’m delivering this season for the McCahon House Parehuia Residency, celebrating their 20th Anniversary, where I’m volunteering the services of The Good Oil to highlight the wonderful and important work they do, and some of their very impressive alumni, which includes Emma.

Emma studied Fine Art at the University of Canterbury, before completing a Master of Fine Art at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland.

Her work is held in numerous public and private collections, including the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, The Dowse Art Museum, the University of Canterbury Art Collection, and the Chartwell Collection at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. She has also been the recipient of several art prizes and residencies, including the Olivia Bower Residency, and of course is Alumni of the McCahon House Parehuia residency.

Emma is represented by Melanie Roger Gallery in Auckland.

There are images of the works that we talk about on The Good Oil Emma Fitts Instagram Post for your reference.

In the episode, you’ll hear how she takes inspiration and direction from fashion and textiles, the potential of canvas beyond simply painting on it, the wealth of guidance she has taken from Anni Albers, how strong the research component of her practice is, and how that makes her in part an historian, and, I really liked this, she observes we’re living in a fluorescent time now with society not being so gentle, and how she plans to respond to that.