Christina Pataialii receives 2017 Iris Fisher Scholarship

Te Tuhi have announced Christina Pataialii as the 2017 Iris Fisher Scholarship Recipient.

Christina Pataialii is currently studying towards a Master of Fine Arts at Whitecliffe College of Arts & Design.

Her highly expressive canvases emerge from an inquiry into the dominance of the western canon in the field of painting and its effect on postcolonial artistic production in regions of complex cultural heritage.

“More significantly, due to her use of ordinary household materials and large format her paintings invite a dance-like relationship with the viewer that impregnates the gallery with the experience of public spaces, where the eye engages with mass media images.” says Te Tuhi Artistic Director Gabriela Salgado.

“Thus her works are close relatives of street art painting but in nestling on the canvas they evoke personal and collective pathos to powerfully render a novel story of painting and the politics of representation.”

Pataialii plans the funds will go towards the cost of creating large scale paintings in order to complete her studies.

The Iris Fisher Scholarship is a national award of $5,000 to support a postgraduate student enrolled in a visual arts/fine arts course of study.

Established by the Fisher family in 2007, the award has supported the development of a number of emerging New Zealand artists including Erica van Zon, Boris Dornbusch, Jeremy Leatinu’u, Anthony Cribb, Louise Menzies, Blaine Western, Charlotte Drayton, Kalisolaite ‘Uhila, Katrina Beekhuis and Hannah Valentine.

(This article was originally published on Te Tuhi)

Image Left to right: Christina Pataialii, California Love- Tupac, 2016 and My Cousin- Dwayne Johnson, 2017. Acrylic, house paint and spray paint on un-stretched canvas. Courtesy of the artist.