Currently, the Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF) is holding Ka Awatea, A New Dawn, a solo exhibition by Emily Karaka, one of the leading post-modern expressionists in New Zealand. The show is curated by Hoor Al Qasimi (Director of SAF) and Megan Tamati-Quennell, who belongs to Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Mutunga, Taranaki, Ngāi Tahu, Kāti Mamoe, and Waitaha descent (Co-curator of Sharjah Biennial 16), with the assistance of Amal Alkhaja (Assistant Curator) and Abdulla Aljanahi (Curatorial Assistant at SAF). Ka Awatea, A New Dawn will be open to the public until 1 December 2024.
The exhibition celebrates Māori artist Emily Karaka’s work, who is descended from the iwi (tribes) of Tāmaki Makaurau, the Auckland Isthmus, Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Kahu, and Ngāti Hine. Influenced by the political landscape of colonisation, her practice focuses on Māori rights and Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi), Aotearoa New Zealand’s founding document. The display features Karaka’s old art pieces sourced from public and private collections, as well as new works specially commissioned by SAF.
Karaka’s bright, large-scale paintings, which she describes as political landscapes or personal self-portraits within the landscape, are a testament to her dedication to advocating for iwi rights and social equity. To create her richly textured works, marked by bold applications of paint, Karaka draws from a mix of artistic traditions, which include not only abstract expressionism but also toi whakairo (Māori carving in wood, stone, or bone). The pieces often incorporate text and communicate themes of Māori sovereignty, social justice, environmental care, and love.
About the artist
Emily Karaka (b. 1952, Auckland, New Zealand), who resides in her native Auckland, is a mostly self-taught artist. She acknowledges the influence of key figures in New Zealand art, such as sculptor Greer Twiss, artist Colin McCahon, and Arnold Manaaki Wilson, a pioneering Māori (Ngāi Tūhoe, Te Arawa) artist and educator.
Karaka has created and showcased her art pieces for over four decades and worked since 1992 for her iwi Ngai Tai ki Tamaki, focusing on its environmental issues as well as historical and contemporary political issues.
The exhibitions Karaka has taken part in include Matarau (City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi, 2022); Two Artists: Emily Karaka & Shona Rapira Davies (Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, Wellington, 2015); Five Māori Painters (Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland, 2014); and Africus, the Johannesburg Biennale (1995), to name a few. From 1992 to 1993, her work was featured in Te Waka Toi: Contemporary Māori Art, an exhibition that toured the USA at venues like the Museum of Man (San Diego) and Heard Museum (Phoenix), among others. In 2020, Karaka participated in the 22nd Biennale of Sydney (NIRIN) and Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art (2020–21), an exhibition by Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.
Karaka’s powerful artworks have been added to several esteemed Aotearoa institutions: Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and the Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui.
To get more information about Ka Awatea, A New Dawn, please go to the official web page of the exhibition.
In addition, you might be interested in visiting Artist’s Rooms: Sancintya Mohini Simpson and Night Stone, American artist Candice Lin’s solo show.
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