Shane Cotton: Artist Talk

Join leading contemporary artist Shane Cotton (Ngāti Rangi, Ngāti Hine, Te Uri Taniwha) for the opening of Te Puāwai, as he presents a suite of brand new and thought-provoking works.

In this unmissable exhibition, Cotton brings together Upoko tuhituhi (head markings), mania, native birds and sailing ships to animate questions about history, culture and identity that reverberate from Aotearoa’s pre-human past right to the present.

Based in Kororāreka Russell, Shane Cotton returns to The Dowse for his first public show in the place he was raised, Te Awakairangi Hutt Valley.

Shane Cotton is an internationally renowned artist with a distinguished career spanning three decades. He has exhibited around the world, and was granted the New Zealand Order of Merit for Services to the Visual Arts in 2012, the Laureate Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand (2008), the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship (1998) and the Seppelt Contemporary Art Award (1998).

Shane Cotton: Te Puāwai is part of Dowse Art Museum’s 50th Anniversary programme. It continues our commitment to highlighting contemporary toi Māori.

Image: Shane Cotton, Things behind the sun XII, 2021. Courtesy of the artist.