Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award Exhibition Arrives At Waitangi Treaty Grounds.

Te Kōngahu Museum of Waitangi Gallery is the latest museum to have the honour of exhibiting the Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award 2023. This exhibition displays the 43 finalists of the Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award, a biennial national competition where emerging Māori artists create portraits of their tūpuna (ancestors). The awards and subsequent nationwide travelling exhibition showcase the talent and expertise of emerging Māori artists through works created with a wide variety of visual artistic mediums.

The Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award was launched in August of 2020 prior to the inaugural competition and award being presented in 2021.

The exhibition itself is hosted, administrated, and toured by the New Zealand Portraiture Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata. The award was created by NZPG in honour of Kiingi Tuheitia. The competition provides an opportunity to exhibit the talent of emerging Māori artists, as well as honouring and celebrating artists tūpuna and their stories.

The Waitangi Treaty Grounds Head of Curatorial and Learning, Chanel Clarke said, “we are excited to bring this exhibition to the Treaty Grounds for our Northland audiences and international visitors. After hosting the Kīngitanga over Waitangi week and ngā iwi o te motu, it is fitting to carry on the conversations with these thought-provoking works by our Māori creatives from across Aotearoa that honour their ancestral and noble whakapapa.”

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The Waitangi Treaty Grounds Curator, Owen Taituha said “the exhibition is a welcomed addition to Te Kōngahu Museum of Waitangi, helping to tell the stories that have shaped a nation. The artworks provide our visitors an alternate lens through which Māori narratives can be experienced and understood…each piece provides a unique story”.

The Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award Exhibition will be open to the public from the 13th of April to the 11th of August 2024.

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