Making Spaces

Date | Thursday 25 August

Time | 6-8pm

Location | ELAM Lecture theatre - 432-136

EMILY KARAKA

Elam Te Waka Tūhura are excited to host Emily Karaka for a Making Spaces lecture in the Elam Lecture Theatre on Thursday 25th September at 6:00 pm.

Making Spaces offers a platform for leading artists and art professionals to reveal insights into their work and ways of working. It makes space for their voices on what they make, why and how.

Emily Karaka was born in 1952 in Tāmaki Makaurau, where she continues to live and work. She is of Ngāpuhi (Ngāti Hine and Ngāti Kahu o Torongare) and Waikato-Tainui (Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki), Ngāti Tamaoho, Te Ākitai Waiohua, Ngāti Rori-Te Ahiwaru, Ngāti Mahuta, and Ngāti Tahinga) affiliations, and has been exhibiting since 1977. Her paintings draw on diverse art-making traditions, including toi whakairo (carving) and abstract expressionism. Characterised by dazzling colour and emotional intensity, they frequently incorporate text and tie into the artist’s longstanding work advocating kaitiakitanga (stewardship) and mana motuhake (self-determination).

Karaka has produced major paintings for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, NIRIN (2020), the landmark Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art (2020–21) at Toi o Tāmaki, and Hawaiʻi Triennial 2025, Aloha Nō. Recent solo exhibitions include Matariki Ring of Fire (2022) at Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery, which grew out of Karaka’s 2021 McCahon House residency, and Ka Awatea, A New Dawn (2024), curated by Hoor Al Qasimi and Megan Tamati-Quennell, at Sharjah Art Foundation, United Arab Emirates. Her works are held by important institutions in Aotearoa New Zealand and abroad, including Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and Sharjah Art Foundation.

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