Kate Newby in Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry
09.04.2025
Contemporary HUM speaks to Aotearoa-born, Texas-based artist Kate Newby about Cold Water (2025), her new commission for Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry. Newby discusses her process of responding to the sea-side site in Sharjah, and the influence of its elemental characteristics—light and space; sun, water and desert—on the work.
Contemporary HUM speaks to Aotearoa-born, Texas-based artist Kate Newby about Cold Water (2025), her new commission for Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry. Newby discusses her process of responding to the sea-side site in Sharjah, and the influence of its elemental characteristics—light and space; sun, water and desert—on the work.
Writing
Albert L. Refiti in Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry
09.04.2025
Architectural theorist and academic Albert L. Refiti speaks to Contemporary HUM from Sharjah Biennial 16, where he presents a selection of his drawn “cosmograms.” He discusses the rich theoretical framework behind his work, including his research into the Sāmoan concept of vā, and the generative complexities of exhibiting in Sharjah.
Writing
And I dance into the future with the past, as a bird
By Haruko Kumakura
27.12.2024
Writing on Aotearoa New Zealand’s presentation at the 15th Gwangju Biennale, Shannon Te Ao’s Ia rā, ia rā (rere runga, rere raro) - Everyday (I fly high, I fly low) (2021), Haruko Kumakura argues that the work brings into focus what the thematic exhibition of the Biennale misses: a weaving together of the voices of the past, present and future appropriate both to the political context of its exhibition and the social and ecological urgencies of our time.
Writing
On truth and telling stories
By Hana Pera Aoake
04.10.2024
Aotearoa artist Hana Pera Aoake reflects on their visit to the Venice Biennale and the questions posed by its central exhibition, Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere. Unearthing the fraught political contexts of Venice, Aoake asks who is really made strange by the Biennale; and whether the presenting Aotearoa artists are able to retain the specificities of place within a curatorial frame that groups categories of difference under the theme of the “stranger”.
Writing
Crossing Currents: Episode 8
By Contemporary HUM
17.08.2024
Contemporary HUM speaks with Aotearoa New Zealand artist Sandy Adsett (Ngāti Pahauwera), a pioneer in the customary artform of kōwhaiwhai and an active figure in the emergence and presentation of contemporary Māori art on the national and international scenes. He discusses being featured in the 60th International Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, his experience as a teacher, and the question of the uses and future of Māori representation at events such as the Biennale.
Crossing Currents: Episode 7
By Contemporary HUM
10.08.2024
Robert Jahnke (Ngāi Taharora, Te Whānau a Iritekura, Te Whānau a Rakairo o Ngāti Porou) speaks to Contemporary HUM about his work Te Wepu MMXXIII, which is featured in the 7th edition of Personal Structures in Venice. Jahnke discusses the influence of Te Wepu, the battle flag of the 19th-century Māori prophet Te Kooti, and how the work highlights a formal whakapapa (genealogy) between Te Kooti, who was not only a religious visionary but an artistic innovator in his own right, and contemporary references to the flag, including by the late sculptor and painter Paratene Matchitt.
Robert Jahnke (Ngāi Taharora, Te Whānau a Iritekura, Te Whānau a Rakairo o Ngāti Porou) speaks to Contemporary HUM about his work Te Wepu MMXXIII, which is featured in the 7th edition of Personal Structures in Venice. Jahnke discusses the influence of Te Wepu, the battle flag of the 19th-century Māori prophet Te Kooti, and how the work highlights a formal whakapapa (genealogy) between Te Kooti, who was not only a religious visionary but an artistic innovator in his own right, and contemporary references to the flag, including by the late sculptor and painter Paratene Matchitt.
Writing
Crossing Currents: Episode 6
By Contemporary HUM
03.08.2024
On the occasion of an historic edition of the Venice Biennale for Aotearoa New Zealand, Contemporary HUM speaks with Mataaho Collective, who were awarded one of the top prizes at the Biennale, the Golden Lion, for their work Takapau. Mataaho Collective discuss the logistics of transforming Takapau for the Biennale, as well as working within a continuum of contemporary Māori art practice that also situates them alongside the intergenerational contingent of Māori artists presenting at this year’s Biennale. HUM also speaks with artist, writer and researcher Rychèl Thérin.
Writing
Crossing Currents: Episode 5
By Contemporary HUM
27.07.2024
Contemporary HUM speaks to esteemed Māori sculptor Fred Graham, a pioneering figure in contemporary Māori art who is part of a generation that forged a new path in ngā toi Māori in post-war Aotearoa. Reflecting on his practice of over 70 years, Graham discusses the influence of his teaching and the importance of friends and family, as well as the experience of exhibiting alongside his son, Brett Graham, at the Venice Biennale.
Project
Crossing Currents: Aotearoa New Zealand Artists in Venice
Podcast series
Despite there being no national pavilion for Aotearoa New Zealand this year, the 60th Venice Biennale is an historic edition for Aotearoa artists. Not only are there an unprecedented number of artists from Aotearoa featured in Venice – both within the International Exhibition of the Biennale and in concurrent events taking place across the city – but it also features the most Māori artists to be included.
In Crossing Currents: Aotearoa New Zealand Artists in Venice, Contemporary HUM speaks with the artists featured in the 60th Venice Biennale and parallel events Personal Structures and Re-Stor(y)ing Oceania as they reflect on presenting in Venice during an historic year for Aotearoa art, Ngā toi Māori and Indigenous art globally.
Calendar
Ruth Buchanan for Artspace Aotearoa: 292 Karangahape Road
09 March 2024 —
01 January 2029
GfZK, Leipzig, Germany
Crossing Currents: Episode 4
By Contemporary HUM
13.07.2024
Architect, artist and mother Elisapeta Hinemoa Heta speaks to Contemporary HUM about her presentation The Body of Wainuiātea, which is featured alongside work by Latai Taumoepeau in Re-Stor(y)ing Oceania, an exhibition curated by Taloi Havini at TBA21–Academy’s Ocean Space in Venice. She discusses the influence of the Māori pūrākau (mythological tradition) of the atua (deity) Wainuiātea, the need to re-establish a sacred relationship to the ocean and the conversations that guided the creation of the work, including with Havini and Taumoepeau.
Architect, artist and mother Elisapeta Hinemoa Heta speaks to Contemporary HUM about her presentation The Body of Wainuiātea, which is featured alongside work by Latai Taumoepeau in Re-Stor(y)ing Oceania, an exhibition curated by Taloi Havini at TBA21–Academy’s Ocean Space in Venice. She discusses the influence of the Māori pūrākau (mythological tradition) of the atua (deity) Wainuiātea, the need to re-establish a sacred relationship to the ocean and the conversations that guided the creation of the work, including with Havini and Taumoepeau.
Writing
Crossing Currents: Episode 3
By Contemporary HUM
06.07.2024
Contemporary HUM interviews artist Caitlin Devoy about BODYOBJECTS, her presentation in the 2024 edition of Personal Structures in Venice. Speaking to HUM in April 2024, Devoy discusses using humour as a feminist strategy to challenge the power relations encoded in gallery spaces, resulting in works that refuse disembodied objectivity in favour of tactility, subjectivity and intuition.
Writing
Crossing Currents: Episode 2
By Contemporary HUM
29.06.2024
Contemporary HUM interviews Brett Graham (Ngāti Koroki Kahukura, Tainui) about Wastelands (2024), his work in Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere, the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. Graham discusses Wastelands as a commentary on extractive attitudes to land, the logistics of exhibiting at the Venice Biennale and what it’s like to be included alongside an intergenerational selection of Māori artists, including his father, Fred Graham.
Writing
Crossing Currents: Episode 1
By Contemporary HUM
22.06.2024
Aotearoa New Zealand artist Areez Katki speaks to HUM about The Rhapsode’s Tools Will Build the Rhapsode’s House, his presentation in the 7th edition of Personal Structures. Katki discusses the processes and politics of exhibiting in Personal Structures and the two series he produced for the exhibition, which take migrant and queer positionalities as points from which to restore notions of pedagogy and learning from patriarchal, religious dictates to an affectual, instinctual realm of care.
Writing
HUM live from the 2024 Venice Biennale
16.04.2024
From 16–21 April 2024, Contemporary HUM will publish live coverage, exclusive images and videos from the opening week of Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere, The 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Click through for coverage of the Aotearoa New Zealand artists presenting work in the curated section of the Biennale, as well as in other events held off-site.
Living Things
16.03.2024
In this short piece, originally put together as a HUMcard mailout for Contemporary HUM's Publishers Circle, Aotearoa-based artist Yukari Kaihori reflects on her two-week residency at Ma Umi Residencies on Ishigaki Island, Japan. The impacts of climate change and marine debris on the subtropical island offer the context for a meditation on the ecological entanglements between objects, animals, and places.
In this short piece, originally put together as a HUMcard mailout for Contemporary HUM's Publishers Circle, Aotearoa-based artist Yukari Kaihori reflects on her two-week residency at Ma Umi Residencies on Ishigaki Island, Japan. The impacts of climate change and marine debris on the subtropical island offer the context for a meditation on the ecological entanglements between objects, animals, and places.
Calendar
Kate Newby, anything, anything
09 June 2024 —
27 April 2025
Klosterruine, Berlin, Germany
Writing
We Work Well Together
By Julia Craig
11.02.2024
Presented at Phillida Reid, Claudia Kogachi’s Labour of Love and Nova Paul’s Hawaiki offer frames through which to view the role of collaborative practice in building worlds of love, care, and self-determination.
Writing
“To see us on our best day.”
By Dávvet Bruun-Solbaak
15.12.2023
Offering a glimpse at the wide range of emotions and encounters that Aotearoa-based artist Maungarongo Te Kawa and Northern Sámi activist Dávvet Bruun-Solbaak share in their multifaceted experiences at different edges of the globe, this conversation takes Te Kawa’s recent residency and touring exhibition in Norway and Sámi territories as a departure point.
Writing
A Film Glossary
By José B. Segebre
29.11.2023
After a conversation with Frankfurt-based, Waipukurau-born artist Juliet Carpenter, José B. Segebre shaped the ideas discussed into this experimental glossary. The entries highlight the ways in which Carpenter’s practice is informed by film and theatre history, and is deeply engaged in the friction of contemporary politics and technologies.
Collective
By Emily Jan
20.11.2023
Upon visiting Treaty 8 territory for the exhibition Collective, by collaborative duo Miranda Bellamy and Amanda Fauteux, Alberta, Canada-based artist and writer Emily Jan considers how these photographic works function as a body which, like the trees they depict, carries stories; of human desires, needs, and actions of destruction or care.
Upon visiting Treaty 8 territory for the exhibition Collective, by collaborative duo Miranda Bellamy and Amanda Fauteux, Alberta, Canada-based artist and writer Emily Jan considers how these photographic works function as a body which, like the trees they depict, carries stories; of human desires, needs, and actions of destruction or care.
Writing
What is held between bodies
By Clémentine Dubost
31.10.2023
After two years of development with his immediate family and numerous international residencies, Amit Noy premiered A Big Big Room Full of Everybody’s Hope in Paris this September, onstage alongside his mother, father, sister and grandmother. Clémentine Dubost spoke with Noy to explore the complexities of this work and his wider practice.
Writing
The Polyphonic Sea
By Emma O'Neill
10.10.2023
Presented at Bundanon Art Museum, deep in the territory of the Dharawal and Dhurga language groups, The Polyphonic Sea features new commissions and recontextualised work by Antonia Barnett McIntosh, Andrew Beck, Ruth Buchanan, The Estate of L. Budd, Sione Faletau, Samuel Holloway and et al., Sarah Hudson, Sonya Lacey, Nova Paul, Sriwhana Spong and Shannon Te Ao.
Project
Championing Aotearoa New Zealand women artists
Partnership
Contemporary HUM is excited to launch our partnership with AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions. The Paris-based non-profit organisation, founded in 2014, focuses on the creation, indexation and distribution of information on women artists of the 20th century. During our partnership with AWARE we have worked on including more Aotearoa New Zealand women artists in their online profiles. AWARE is a great resource for championing women artists and we’re thrilled to be working with them. A huge thanks to Creative New Zealand for making this partnership possible.