Pacific Painters Panel: Claudia Jowitt, Salome Tanuvasa, Telly Tuita

Pacific Painters Panel: Claudia Jowitt, Salome Tanuvasa, Telly Tuita
Saturday 1 November, 11am
Free | RSVP appreciated

The sculptural paintings and abstract works of Claudia Jowitt, Salome Tanuvasa, and Telly Tuita pulse with the stories of their lives. Creating a rich and layered distinct visual language, each artist draws from the landscapes of memory, family, and cultural heritage across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa. In this dynamic conversation, chaired by Herbee Bartley, dive into the creative minds of these three distinctive artists as they reveal the inspirations, processes, and powerful narratives behind their work. Don’t miss this celebration of identity, innovation, and artistic exploration.

Claudia Jowitt is an artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau of Pākeha and iTaukei (Fijian) heritage. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts, a Bachelor of Art and Design (Hons) and Bachelor of Visual Arts from AUT University’s School of Art and Design and studied at Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Fine Arts in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Jowitt has been exhibiting both nationally and internationally since first completing her undergraduate degree in 2009 and is represented by Melanie Roger Gallery. She was the 2016 Tautai Trust Pacific Artist in Residence at the Dunedin School of Art at Otago Polytechnic and was the joint winner of the Arts Whakatāne Award from Molly Morpeth Canaday Awards in 2021. Her works are included in The Arts House Trust Collection & University of Auckland Art Collection.

Salome Tanuvasa is a Samoan-Tongan artist based in Auckland. She completed her Masters in Fine Arts at Elam in 2014, followed by a Diploma in Secondary Teaching. Her work crosses a variety of mediums including moving image, drawing, photography and sculpture. It is about her immediate surroundings and often reflects the environments she is in at that time, drawing attention to wider issues among New Zealand-based Pacific people. Her work is held in the Chartwell Collection and the Wallace Art Trust Collection and she has had three solo exhibitions at Tim Melville Gallery in Auckland. She has made shows in Auckland, Wellington, Sydney and Shanghai, where in 2018 she was awarded the YAF Creative Award by the China Academy of Art.

Telly Tuita is an Australian and New Zealand interdisciplinary artist of Tongan descent. Tuita delves into his cultural identity through nostalgia, which is shaped by his childhood relocation from Tonga.[4] Tuita developed Tongpop, a distinct visual language, as a result of his exploration of his ethnic identity and complex relationship with his ancestral land. Tongpop is an intriguing blend of influence, historical and contemporary personalities, art, music, movies and literature, foundational pillars of the western canon blended with memories, icons and patterns of the artists cultural origins. Within his practice - video, photography, painting, sculpture and installation - Tuita navigates ideas of home and belonging, identity and self-worth. It encapsulates an experience lived between two realities.

Herbee Bartley is a cultural producer, social catalyst and amateur fashion stylist. Born in Lower Hutt, raised in Naenae in the 90’s. He is Tokelauan and Samoan, with ancestral ties to Tuvalu and The Cook Islands. Bartley acts as Ringa Poipoi, Student Health and Wellbeing at Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School, and has over two decades of experience in the GLAM sector.