Biographies

Ioane Ioane:
Ioane (John) Ioane (b. 1962) is a senior practitioner of New Zealand and Pacific art. Ioane describes his work as a type of poetry that draws on various forms of creative expression from painting, sculpture, installation and relational aesthetics.

Born in Christchurch, New Zealand, to Samoan parents Ioane returned to Samoa at nine months before settling in Aotearoa at age 6. “Initially, not knowing any English, drawing became my way of communicating and my escape. My philosophy of life, from that time on, has been grounded on those five formative years in Samoa” says Ioane.

Ioane gained a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland in 1985 and a Diploma in Teaching from the Auckland College of Education in 1986. He held his first major solo exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki in 1999. In 2009 Whangarei Art Museum presented John Ioane: Journeyman, Artist and the Pacific Paradox, the first major survey of Ioane’s work. Ioane has exhibited extensively in New Zealand and internationally and has works in major collections including those of the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, England; the Tjibaou Cultural Centre, Nouméa, New Caledonia; the National University of Samoa; the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington; Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki; Pataka Museum of Arts and Cultures, Wellington; the Wallace Arts Trust, Auckland and the University of Auckland Art Collection. For more information visit the Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust webpage by clicking here.

















Reuben Friend:
Reuben Friend (b.1981) is an artist and curator of Pakeha and Ngati Maniapoto heritage. Raised in Auckland and studying Te Reo Maori at the Auckland College of Education in 2001, he pursued a degree in Maori Visual Art at Toimairangi in Hawkes Bay, graduating in 2005, and completed a Masters in Maori Visual Art from Te Putahi a Toi Massey University, Palmerston North in 2010. Receiving the Doreen Blumdhart/ Creative New Zealand internship at The Dowse Art Museum in 2009, where he curated the Plastic Maori exhibition, he now currently works as the Curator of Maori and Pacific Art at City Gallery Wellington. Recent exhibitions include Notion of a Nation (2011), Fresh Gallery, Otara; Whakarongo (2012), Tauranga Art Gallery and To tatou kainga (2012), Papakura Art Gallery. For more information on his curatorial practice click here or to see some of his art click here.