Michel Tuffery | |
|---|---|
| Born | Michael Cliff Tuffery 27 May 1966 Newlands, Wellington, New Zealand |
| Nationality | New Zealander |
| Education | 1980–85 ‘A’ Bursary, Newlands College, Wellington |
| Alma mater | 2014 Master of Fine Arts (Honorary), School of Fine Arts, Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin, | 1990 Mānoa School of Fine Arts, University of Hawaiʻi, United States 1986–89 Bachelor of Fine Arts Printmaking (Hons), School of Fine Arts, Otago Polytechnic |
| Movement | Contemporary art, abstract expressionism |
Michael "Michel" Cliff Tuffery MNZM [1] (born 27 May 1966) is a New Zealand artist of Samoan, Tahitian and Cook Islands descent. He is one of New Zealand's most well known artists and his work is held in many art collections in New Zealand and around the world. [2]
His mother is Samoan Bula Tuffery (nee Paotonu) and his biological father was Cook Island Tahitian. His step father was Denis Tuffery, of European descent. [3]
He attended Newlands College in Wellington, [4] and has a Diploma in Fine Arts (Hons) from the School of Fine Arts at Otago Polytechnic (1989).
He lives and works in Wellington.
One of his distinctive sculptures from 1994 is the life-sized work, entitled Pisupo Lua Afe (Corned Beef 2000) , which was constructed from flattened and riveted re-cycled corned beef tins. His work is shaped by his research into, and encounters with his Polynesian heritage while making use of Māori design. Many of his works explore colonialism and people's treatment of the environment. Renowned as a printmaker, painter and sculptor, Tuffery has gained national and international recognition, and has made a major contribution to New Zealand art.[ citation needed ]
In 1998, Ian George curated Paringa Ou, the first major exhibition of contemporary art by Cook Island artists residing in New Zealand featuring artists such as Ani O'Neill, Sylvia Marsters, Mahiriki Tangaroa, Michel Tuffery, Jim Vivieaere, Ian George, and Kay George, the exhibition travelled to the National Museum in Fiji, Cook Islands National Museum, as well as Gus Fisher Gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. [5] The exhibition was sponsored by the New Zealand High Commission. [6]
He was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to art, in the 2008 Queen's Birthday Honours. [7] In 2010 he was awarded the Contemporary Pacific Art Award at the Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifka Awards, [8] while in 2020 he received the Senior Pacific Artist Award from the same organisation. [9]
Tuffery has exhibited extensively in New Zealand and internationally. [10]
Jolene Douglas is a contemporary New Zealand Māori artist who has been exhibiting since 1983. Two of her art works are in the collection of Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. She is currently living in Gisborne and been a curator Tairawhiti Museum since 1995. Douglas was born in 1950 in Matamata, New Zealand.
Mark Adams is one of New Zealand's most distinguished photographers.
Fatu Akelei Feu'u is a noted Samoan painter from the village of Poutasi in the district of Falealili in Samoa. He has established a reputation as the elder statesman of Pacific art in New Zealand.
Fiona Dorothy Pardington is a New Zealand artist, her principal medium being photography.
Ani O'Neill is a New Zealand artist of Cook Island and Irish descent. She has been described by art historian Karen Stevenson as one of the core members of a group of artists of Pasifika descent who brought contemporary Pacific art to "national prominence and international acceptance".
Sopolemalama Filipe Tohi is a Tongan artist who has lived in New Zealand since 1978. He has exhibited in major exhibitions in New Zealand and abroad. Several major collections include his work. The 2010 Art and Asia Pacific Almanac describes him as "Tongan art's foremost ambassador".
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Te Moemoea no Iotefa was the first exhibition held in a civic art gallery in New Zealand focused on contemporary Pacific art.
Ioane Ioane is a New Zealand artist of Samoan descent. His work is informed by his Samoan heritage and includes performance, film, painting, installation and sculpture. In conversation about his work Fale Sā with art historian Caroline Vercoe, Ioane states, Sacred places are not necessarily a church, but it's a place where one likes to be in, a place of affirmation. Curator Ron Brownson writes, Ioane's attitude to sculptural process is cosmological – his carvings bind present reality with a representation of the past.
James Earnest Vivieaere, a New Zealand artist of Cook Island Maori heritage, was born in Waipawa, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand. He was a well-respected and significant multimedia and installation artist, freelance curator and a passionate advocate for contemporary Pacific art.
Mahiriki Tangaroa is a New Zealand-born Cook Islands photographer and painter. She is a former director of the Cook Islands National Museum. She is recognised as a leading contemporary Cook Islands artist, and her work is regularly exhibited in galleries in New Zealand and the Cook Islands.
Pisupo Lua Afe is a pop art sculpture created by the New Zealand artist Michel Tuffery in 1994. It is the first in a series of tin animals, made from the packaging of foods common in Samoa. Addressing his Samoan heritage, neocolonialism and the distress of indigenous peoples in the Pacific, it is one of his most celebrated works.
Jasmine Togo-Brisby is a South Sea Islander artist known for her sculpture installations and portrait photographs. She currently resides in Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington and is one of few artists that centres Pacific slave labour as the focus of her practice.
Andy Leleisi’uao is a New Zealand artist of Samoan heritage known for his modern and post-modern Pacific paintings and art. He was paramount winner at the 26th annual Wallace Art Awards in 2017 and awarded a Senior Pacific Artist Award at the Arts Pasifika Awards in 2021.
Reuben Paterson is a New Zealand artist based in New York, United States known for using glitter in his works.
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Sylvia Lolita Cathrine Marsters is a New Zealand artist of Cook Islands descent. In 2003, she received a residency in the Cook Islands from Creative New Zealand, and she has exhibited in Rarotonga many times since, as well as in New Zealand, Fiji and New York.
Ian David George (1953–2016) was a New Zealand-born Cook Islands senior painter, carver, educator, and curator of Aitu and Rarotonga descent.
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