TITLE: Whātonga, Year: 2022, Edition: 40 + 10 APs
MATERIAL: Screenprint on paper
SIZE: 1050mm x 760mm

Shane Cotton
Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Rangi, Ngāti Hine, Te Uri Taniwha

Shane Cotton, ONZM, is an internationally renowned New Zealand artist who has exhibited extensively in New Zealand and abroad. In 2008, he received a Laureate award from the New Zealand Arts Foundation and, in 2012, was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the visual arts. Cotton established himself at the forefront of the renaissance of Māori art in the 1990s and his distinguished career now spans over three decades. Shane’s practice is underpinned by the recurrent questioning of his own cultural identity and our collective cultural identity and this sits alongside his commitment to learning and understanding mātauranga Māori and te ao Māori (Māori knowledge and the Māori worldview). The development of his practice has built on the knowledge of his ancestors, actively absorbing, and re-examining the past to contextualise what biculturalism means in the present day. The symbols from Māori and Pakeha cultural histories in his paintings are predominantly derived from post-contact Māori art, and prompt conversations about nationhood and identity.