Artist talk: Tira Walsh in kōrero with Nathan Pōhio

Join us for some kōrero between artist Tira Walsh (Ngāti Wairere, Ngāti Hauā and Tainui) and Senior Curator of Māori Art, Nathan Pōhio (Waitaha, Kāti Mamoe, Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu, Kāti Pākehā) as they traverse the influences and themes across Walsh’s wider practice and in her most recent commission, Urbanize III.

Humming with technicolour energy, Urbanize III combines Walsh’s experiences of urban and rural environments in a freefall painterly landscape. Boldly engulfing the Gallery’s South Atrium with swathes of digitally reproduced paint, the work makes evident Walsh’s desire ‘to give the viewer’s retina a jolt, aiming to maintain a sense of rawness in [the work’s] making’. Come to this kōrero to hear more about the forces driving Walsh’s work, from galactic 80s sci-fi landscapes to the sights and sounds of Tāmaki Makaurau.

Urbanize III, 2023 is generously funded by Auckland Contemporary Arts Trust.