Team

Alena Kavka

Managing Director

Alena Kavka is an art professional, currently based in London. With an interest in the intersections between contemporary art, public engagement and writing, Alena has experience working across Tāmaki Makaurau’s public art sector, including most recently as Programme & Communications Coordinator at Te Tuhi. Her writing has been published on the websites of the Auckland Art Gallery and Gus Fisher Gallery, CIRCUIT and Ocula, as well as in the academic journals Afterimage and Knowledge Cultures.  

Genista Jurgens

Communications Director

Genista Jurgens is an arts worker from Hokianga, Aotearoa New Zealand, living in Portugal. She has a BFA from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, and has spent more than 15 years working across media, advertising and the creative industries in Aotearoa, Turtle Island North America and Europe. She has experience managing artist-led initiatives (Cross St Studios and Craftwerk in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland), has supported top commercial directors in Germany and Aotearoa, and has written for online arts publications including Beautiful/Decay, Format Magazine and Ocula. She joined HUM in 2018, providing PR, admin, digital marketing and graphic design support, and now leads audience engagement.

Pauline Autet

Founding Director

Pauline Autet is an independent curator, editor and project manager. Based in France since 2016, Pauline founded and continues to run Contemporary HUM in collaboration with other New Zealanders based in Europe and beyond. She previously worked at City Gallery Wellington, 30upstairs Gallery and co-founded the nomadic gallery Elbowroom. Following her experience as attendent of the New Zealand pavilion at the Venice Biennale for Simon Denny’s Secret Power exhibition in 2015, she thought something could be done to bridge the gap between Aotearoa and the wider art world and developed HUM. As a freelance arts professional in Paris, she works with the New Zealand and French art scenes concurrently. Within a collaboration between the Pernod Ricard Foundation and the French Ministry of Culture she is in charge of the editorial platform TextWork. She also coordinates Trampoline, a non-profit initiative created by a group of private organisations in France to promote the international visibility of the French art scene.

In collaboration with:

Eva Charlton - Graphic design

Sons & Co. - Website

Marie Shannon - Copy-editing

Cat Ruka, Hanahiva Rose, Jessica Palalagi, Matariki Williams, Jessica Hubbard, Jack Gray, Vera Mey, Freya Finch... - Expert readers

 

Former collaborators:

Maria Julia Guichard ; Crème Fraîche - Website and logo

Winsome Wild - Communications

Jess Douglas - Copy-editing

Hannah Murray - Special Projects and Social Media Coordinator

Millie Riddell - Assistant Editor

Isobel Dryburgh ; Ashley Mackenzie-White - Research and Community Manager

Chloe Lane ; Frances Loeffler - Associate Editor

Hamish Petersen - Senior Editor

Associate Editors

Amy Weng

Associate Editor

Amy Weng is an art writer, editor and independent curator based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. She is the founder of Hainamana, a website dedicated to Asian New Zealand contemporary art and culture, and has contributed to publications including Artomity, Circuit, HAMSTER, The Pantograph Punch, Peril and The Spinoff. She was the organiser of the inaugural Asian Aotearoa Artists Hui in 2017, now a nationwide symposium for Asian diaspora artists, and has curated projects at Te Tuhi, Window Gallery, RM, and Meanwhile Gallery.

Anne-Marie Te Whiu

Associate Editor

Anne-Marie Te Whiu (Te Rarawa) is a poet, editor, cultural producer and weaver based on unceded Gadigal lands in Australia. She has edited works such as Solid Air, Australia and New Zealand Spoken Word Anthology, Whisper Songs by Tony Birch and More Than These Bones by Bebe Backhouse. She is dedicated to platforming the creative output of Indigenous peoples around the world and is especially interested in the rigour of the artistic collective. She was previously the co-director of the Queensland Poetry Festival and was a recipient of The Next Chapter Fellowship through The Wheeler Centre. Her writing has been broadly published in journals, books and magazines such as Another Australia, Sport, Te Whe ki Tukorehe Volume 1, Cordite, Rabbit, Australian Poetry, Tupuranga, Debris, SBS, Running Dog, Ora Nui, In*ter*is*land Collective and Contemporary HUM.

Bruce E. Phillips

Associate Editor

Bruce E. Phillips is an independent curator and writer from Aotearoa currently based in Edinburgh. As a curator he has worked with over 200 artists including commissioning works by Tania Bruguera, Ruth Ewan, Rangituhia Hollis, Maddie Leach, William Pope.L, Santiago Sierra, Peter Robinson, Shannon Te Ao, Luke Willis Thompson, Kalisolaite ‘Uhila and Ruth Watson. His writing has been published in ArtAsiaPacific, Artlink Magazine, Art News New Zealand, and in a number of exhibition publications for galleries such as Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and Te Tuhi. Long-term research interests include environmentalism, neurodiversity, social psychology and legacies of settler colonialism.

Catherine Dale

Associate Editor

Catherine Dale is the co-author with Neil Vallelley of Suicide in Public: Emotion in the 21st Century (forthcoming 2022). She has taught widely in Australasia, Europe and Asia. She lives in Tokyo where she teaches poetics, drama, and writing at Tokyo Woman's Christian University. She is a member of several collectives, including Tokyo Study Collective, The Varese Group, and Seasonal Work. 

Board

Benjamin Work

Trustee

Benjamin Work is an artist, Tāmaki Makaurau-born and raised, with Tongan and Scottish heritage. Work’s evolution exemplifies the new trajectories of artists reared on American sub/pop culture, while also explicitly exploring the complexities of both cultural institutions and the Moana Oceania diaspora. Drawing on his Tongan heritage, Work has pushed his art in new directions over the last decade. Inspired by his research throughout museums across the globe; that house Tongan iconography, found on cultural treasures such as ‘akau tau (weaponry), his refined, graphic paintings have sought to find new spaces and ways for audiences to engage with Tonga’s visual culture, both inside institutions and on the streets. He is also the author of Whenua Fonua ‘Enua and Motutapu books.

Heather Galbraith

Chair

Heather Galbraith is a curator, writer and art educator. She is a Professor of Fine Art at Toi Rauwharangi College of Creative Arts, Massey University in Wellington. She is the curatorial collaborator with 8 makers from Aotearoa and Australia, for the ongoing project Deep Material Energy (www.deepmaterialenergy.com), and recently curated Judy Darragh: Competitive Plastics for Objectspace, Tāmaki Makauraru (2021) and the Centre of Contemporary Art Toi Moroki, Ōtautahi (2022). She was Managing Curator for SCAPE Public Art in Ōtautahi, Christchurch for three iterations (of a 6-week art in public space season) in 2016, 2017 and 2018, and was commissioner for the 2015 NZ pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Simon Denny: Secret Power, deputy commissioner for Bill Culbert: Front Door Out Back, in 2013, and co-curator for Francis Upritchard: Save Yourself, and deputy commissioner in 2009. Heather has a BFA from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland and an MA in Curating and Arts Administration from Goldsmith’s College, London. She worked for seven years as Exhibitions Organiser at Camden Arts Centre, London. Currently she supervises Masters and PhD candidates at Massey University, writes about art, undertakes curatorial projects and is Mum to a very active young daughter.

Hiraani Himona

Treasurer

Hiraani Himona (Ngāi Te Whatuiāpiti, Ngāti Rangiwhakāewa and Ngāti Hikarara) has over 20 years of experience of management in arts organisations in the UK and Aotearoa. She has been the Executive Director of Te Tuhi Contemporary Art Gallery since 2015. She was previously the Deputy Director of the South London Gallery. After gaining a science degree from Massey University she established a career in the arts, through a background of providing opportunities for diverse communities, including working in Māori development (Te Puni Kokiri and the Ministry of Education), disability (Mental Health Media), gender and sexuality (York Lesbian Arts Festival; Samesame but Different) and youth at risk (Hi8us South), before moving into the Contemporary Art sector where she continues to focus on providing opportunities for artists, the sector, and its wider communities.

Jude Chambers

Secretary

With over 18 years' experience in the arts and cultural sector, Jude Chambers is an arts leader and freelance consultant with a demonstrated history of successfully designing and delivering major international projects, national and international partnerships, funding programmes, capability building and advocacy initiatives. Jude joined Creative New Zealand toi Aotearoa in 2005, and held the position of Manager, International Initiatives and Services from 2012 to 2022. This role was responsible for an ambitious and complex programme to connect New Zealand artists and arts organisations with global markets and networks. The role included overseeing New Zealand’s participation at the Venice Biennale Arte and at the Edinburgh Festivals. She has also held a variety of governance roles in the not-for-profit and environmental sectors.

Susan Hitchiner

Trustee

Susan Hitchiner is part of the communities of New Zealanders who are living overseas. She has been living in Paris, France for nearly ten years. Susan is an independent director focusing on third sector (not-for-profit/charitable) organisations and, until 2023 when she retired from the Institute, was a chartered member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors (CMInstD). During her time in Paris, Susan continued to hold board positions: in Aotearoa; for an international organisation; and for L'Association France Nouvelle Zélande; before joining Contemporary HUM. Susan brings governance, strategic and financial management skills and experience to Contemporary HUM and a lay perspective to the board's deliberations. She is nonetheless an 'appreciator' of visual arts and has a particular interest in supporting HUM's role in promoting awareness and understanding of Aotearoa's artists globally.

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Get Involved

Contemporary HUM is open to new collaborations, ideas and contributions. Get in touch with us if you have something to pitch.

We're always keen to hear from editors and writers worldwide who may want to engage with New Zealand arts projects in their geographical area.

Currently, we are seeking associate editors based in North and South Americas who would like to work with HUM to expand our coverage to those areas. Some knowledge of New Zealand arts, experience in editorial work, and connections in their local art community/writers is needed.

Read our writers guidelines and style guide here.

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