Hamish Coney Hamish is an Auckland-based writer and arts advisor. He writes a regular column on the visual arts at newsroom.co.nz. He has also contributed articles to Art News New Zealand, Urbis, The New Zealand Herald, Idealog and Architecture New Zealand, and was named arts columnist of 2009 at the Qantas MediaAwards. From 2007 to 2018 he was the founding Managing Director of the auction house Art + Object. Hamish has a particular interest in the intersection of cross-cultural thinking in the arts, with a view towards placing Maori art concepts and production at the centre of the broader discourse within New Zealand art history. In late 2019 and early 2020 he chaired the presentation of speakers at City Gallery Wellington, and Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, Titirangi, for the opening of the exhibition Split Level View Finder: Theo Schoon and New Zealand Art. He is a trustee of Artspace Aotearoa and the registered charities The Kauri Project and For the Love of Bees. Mark Adams (Born 1949. Christchurch. Ka Pakihi Whakatekateka o Waitaha. Canterbury. Te Wai Pounamu. The South Island.) North New Brighton had a tsunami in 1960, and 54 of us terrified kids and our teacher Mr Ashley were locked into our classroom waiting for it to hit. We went to Canterbury Museum and Mr Eyles showed us the tupapaku from Wairau Bar in a display case. I watched Inia Te Waiata carving a waka in the gallery below. I got 4 out of 100 for maths in the fourth form at Shirley Boys' High School in 1963. I got 93 out of 100 for art for School Certificate. My art teacher was Digby Graham. He sent me to art school, where I studied from 1967 to 1970. Doris Lusk taught me painting, Eileen Mayo drawing. Tom Taylor sculpture and Don Peebles basic design. I did the graphic design diploma. No fine art degrees then. I decided I wanted to do photography. Tom Palaskas, a kindly fellow student, taught me how to process film and make prints. I found the school's Linhoff 4 x 5-inch plate camera no one used and used it. That was the future. The future was a purist large-format-camera-based analogue practice. The works are very high resolution, silver-based enlargements from 8 x 10-inch negatives, black-and-white and colour, and up to mural scale. These works come out of readings and direct experience of world and regional Polynesian and New Zealand art, literature and histories, with focus on regional cross-cultural and colonial issues in New Zealand. I have published several books and catalogues that accompany exhibitions, some in collaboration with academics, historians and other artists. I began exhibiting in 1972 and have shown in most New Zealand public art galleries, many of which have collections of my work. I have also exhibited in public and university galleries and museums internationally. This has included the 1998 Sao Paulo Biennale, Zelda Cheatle Gallery, London, the Maritime Museum, Greenwich, the Royal Academy, London, and Musee du quai Branly, Paris. I have benefitted from grants from Queen Elisabeth II Arts Council, MASPAC, CNZ, The Leverhulme Trust and the Getty Grant Program. I worked at and exhibited with Real Pictures Gallery and photographic laboratory, Auckland. I established Studio La Gonda, Karangahape Road, Auckland, with Haru Sameshima in 1996, and continue to work from there. I am represented by McNamara Gallery Photography and Two Rooms. Lyonel Grant (Ngati Te Takinga, Ngati Pikiao, Ngati Rangiwewehi, Ngati Rangitihi, Te Arawa) An honors graduate from the New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute (Te Puia) in Rotorua, Lyonel trained under Tohunga Whakairo John Taiapa. In 1985 he carved the meeting house Matapihi o te Rangi, in Tokoroa, which was then followed by Ihenga, at Tangatarua Marae at the Waiariki (now Toi Ohomai) Institute of Technology in Rotorua, from 1993 to 1996. He then completed his third whare, Ngakau Mahaki, in 2009, which stands at Unitec Institute of Technology Te Whare Wananga o Wairaka, Auckland. In 2013 he was commissioned to create his fourth house, Paimarire, for a college in Washington State. In honour of the tangata whenua of that land, he blended both Maori and Salish design. Since embarking on a freelance career, his work has become more diverse, exploring the tensions between customary cultural art in the context of the marae (gathering place) and contemporary art styles in the gallery environment as well as international contexts. His focus is the relationship between modernism and classical Maori art, and the utilisation of different materials, modern technologies and influences. Lyonel's work is widely represented in public and private collections in New Zealand and internationally. Dr Keri-Anne Wikitera (Tuhourangi) Dr Keri-Anne Wikitera is a senior lecturer and researcher working in the School of Hospitality and Tourism at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. Her Maori tribal affiliations are Tuhourangi Ngati Wahaio and Ngati Whakaue of Te Arawa, from the geothermal Rotorua region. These tribes are recognised among the nation's principal drivers of Maori tourism. As such, her personal and academic interests are specifically positioned to promote and enhance Maori cultural identity, intercultural exchange, the tourism industry, indigenous history and knowledge systems. James Schuster (Ngati Pikiao, Tuhourangi, Ngati Tarawhai, Tuwharetoa) James was born and raised in Rotorua, New Zealand, into a family that has practised and maintained Maori arts and crafts for generations. Traditional knowledge and skills have been passed down through the family, which has led to his current position as Maori Built Heritage Advisor, Traditional Arts, with Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.
