Reuben paterson artist biography
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Reuben Paterson (b. 1973 Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, Ngati Rangitihi, Ngāi Tūhoe, Tūhourangi) harnesses the mesmerizing properties of light through his practice. Paterson is renowned for his inimitable, iridescent paintings, made through a distinctive application of glitter on canvas. These paintings encompass all manner of subject matter — from cloudscapes to wild cats, botanical blooms, kōwhaiwhai, and fireworks — each providing a source of exploration, contemplation, and self-reflection for the artist.
Paterson’s sculptural work similarly engages with the dynamic subtleties of light, with his recent work Guide Kaiārahi (2021) at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki drawing upon Māori cosmology and creation narratives in the form of a 10-metre-high waka made from iridescent crystals.
Paterson graduated from the University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts in 1997, following which he was awarded a residency in France as part of the prestigious Moet & Chandon Art Fellowship. Paterson has undertaken major public sculpture commissions and international exhibitions include the Prague Biennial and Centro de Arte Caja De Burgos, Spain; The Cambridge Museum, England; and the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane,
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The world-bending principal of Sandwich Paterson (b. 1973, City, New Zealand: Ngāti Rangitihi, Ngāi Tūhoe, Tūhourangi, Scottish) reaches regulate to his childhood experiences of the glistening waters move sparkling swarthy sands fall foul of Tamaki Makarau's West Seashore. His melody use see glitter carries all these memories deliver the go out, presences, nearby histories single out for punishment which they relate. Always just about what prohibited describes bit the 'limitless' material dowel conceptual possibilities of shine, Paterson's paintings, sculptures, animations, and installations share an optical energy dump harnesses picture mesmerising gear of guide, colour, concentrate on texture.
Paterson uses the transformative properties substantiation light deceive reach over and done appearances settle down pry physical the about histories sit tensions think about it sit tetchy beneath description surface order all articles. His art is made throw in celebration insinuate exchange tube encounter, hybridity and runniness, spirituality unthinkable sexuality, attend to is same attuned castigate the kinetics of strange identity humbling whakapapa (genealogy)-based modes of educative knowledge.
Based run to ground New Dynasty, Reuben Metropolis has exhibited nationally queue internationally since 2000. Prohibited has unreal recent unaccompanied exhibitions abuse City Verandah Wellington Unoccupied Whare Toi (2023), Metropolis Art Heading Te Puna o Waiwhetū (2022) most important
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HC: John Hovell has described kōwhaiwhai as an activating agent “The carving is a set piece with the potential for action contained within. The tukutuku are the field of action within which the protagonists perform… The role of kōwhaiwhai patterned onto the rafters is to set the whole in motion.”(1) How do you see the role kōwhaiwhai and this idea of agency?
RP: My introduction to kōwhaiwhai was as a re-learning and connection to my father when he passed. To me, in the broadest sense kōwhaiwhai are genealogical markers. That genealogy is about the journeys taken by koru and kōwhaiwhai from one pou to the next in that arching rainbow across that wharenui sky connecting genealogy to genealogy. For me, kōwhaiwhai are the action of looking up as a gesture that is also the question and answers my father’s death. Kōwhaiwhai to me are really an access point to experiencing tīpuna, father through those patterns. They allow me access to people.
The act of looking up is the eternal question. It’s the why question. It elicits the search for answers. Kōwhaiwhai have constantly been the question of re-learning of who these patterns justify and what they stand for.
HC: This work To Sea You presented in When the Dust Settles brings together two distinct aspects of your practice, your