2012: Opening 9 May, Milford Gallery, Dunedin;  Opening 3 September , BCA Gallery, Rarotonga.

2011: Rainbolic City, Whitespace Gallery, Auckland; World of Lemeads, ROAR! Gallery, Wellington; World of Erodipolis, Milford Gallery, Dunedin; Arytipidal, Blue Oyster, Dunedin; Ufological City, VOLTA, New York, USA

2010: Cryptid Illuminati, Whitespace, Auckland; Wandering Through Pandemonium Quiet, COCA Gallery, Christchurch; Andy Leleisi’uao, Thistle Hall, Wellington; Carousel of Cryptid Abanimals, Whitespace, Auckland.
2009: Asefeka of the Unmalosa, Kips Gallery, Chelsea, New York, USA;  Areatures of the Arctaur People, BCA, Rarotonga, Cook Islands; Le Onoeva - Misunderstood Aitu, Whitespace, Auckland.
2008: Andy Leleisi'uao, McCarthy Gallery, Auckland; Angipanis of the Abanimal People, Whitespace, Auckland.
2007: Lost Kamoans of the Godly and Godless, Whitespace, Auckland.
2006: The Ballad of a Cheeky Darkie, Te Tuhi - The Mark, Pakuranga, Auckland; Catch a Sparkling Spirit, Salamander Gallery, Christchurch; I Need to See Alien, Whitespace, Auckland.

2005: Empowered Wallflower, Whitespace, Auckland; We're Not Black (with I. Nikalo), Salamander Gallery, Christchurch;  Cheeky Darkie, Whitespace, Auckland.
2004: The Ballad of Tinou'amea and Pepe, Whitespace, Auckland; Dressed to Kill (with J.Ioane), Salamander Gallery, Christchurch.
2001 My Samoan Accent, Artstation Gallery, Ponsonby, Auckland; The Brown Corner, Salamander Gallery, Christchurch; Tired of Silence, Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, Wellington.
2000: Polynesian Grotesques, Muka Studio, Ponsonby, Auckland; Crashed Presbyterian, Te Taumata Art Gallery, Auckland.
1999 Patterns of My Lavalava, Ilam University, Christchurch.
1998 Furious (with G. Hookey), Casula Powerhouse, Sydney, Australia; The Brownest Dawn, The Pumphouse, Takapuna, Auckland.

Otago Daily Times, June 13, 2011 - Julie Jopp: ‘Andy Leleisi'uao, a New Zealand-born Samoan artist, known for his earlier work critiquing the social, cultural and political realities of Samoans living in New Zealand, has shifted his painting focus and style from a somewhat angry approach to something more light-hearted. While still dealing with complex issues of identity, each work in this exhibition has a visual simplicity and sophistication. Leleisi'uao uses mythology and the spiritual to think up alternate universes populated with creatures of fantasy….Although Leleisi'uao uses a limited palette to enhance his style, it is refreshing to see more use of colour in this latest exhibition. Used intuitively, it is again an indication of a lighter approach in his work. Some of the works are based on a multilined narrative, each band depicting a range of activities and acts. Other works are more vertically arranged narratives of mythic underwater life where silhouetted, large-headed figures - half animal, half human - act out scenes. Limbs, too, become symbols and tools of drama in other work’.

The Listener, June 11, 2011 - David Eggleton: ‘Andy Leleisi‘uao’s paintings, in his exhibition The World of Erodipolis at Milford Galleries Dunedin, are phantasmagorias. He practises a kind of fusion art that blends miscellaneous imagery, ranging from prehistoric cave paintings to Egyptian hieroglyphs, to ancient Greek temple friezes, to Aboriginal rock drawings, to Pasifika tapa cloth patterns, to news¬paper comic strips, all skilfully remade into his own stylised configurations, and producing eccentric folk tales – a faux-primitivist vibe that seems to celebrate some flourishing ancient civilisation, or else a civilisation in the near-future after an eco-catastrophe….In The World of Erodipolis, he offers 20 small canvases arranged into four sequences that continue the myth-making, the presentation of brave new worlds, the creation of ironic sacred sites. Establishing his own magical aura with his paintbrush, he gives it all a -hallucinatory force. Leleisi‘uao depicts processions of ¬spindly hunter-gatherers bearing shouldered burdens of bulging sacks, or dinosaur bones, or animist deities on small platforms. The iconographic emblems in the five-part Phelantis series seem like pictographs recovered from some old colonial museum’s basement: a schematic catalogue of necklaces, pendants, amulets, masks and fertility totems – these might be emblems of the cultural relativism that ¬unifies humanity….. This is sign language taken to another level’.

Asia Art News, May/June, 2011 – Dr Robin Woodward: ‘The term Illuminati in Cryptid Illuminati might well allude to the form and content of mediaeval illuminated manuscripts with their miniature illustrations, miniscule figures, and marginalia. The cryptids that populate the siapo-like bands are creatures from his imagination, animals of myth and legend, engaged in a range of activities. Some tell stories of the cycle of the seasons – planting, harvesting, laboring, loving, living, dying; others look like groups of monsters or nightmares. Some tales are told through traditional Christian analogy, others employ classical or more universal symbols; the recurring red for example, can be read as blood or fire or the sun. This unique combination of traditional and personal iconography is the singular vision of Andy Leleisi’uao’s as he confronts the issues of Samoan diaspora or more universal narratives of human and family relationships’.

Otago Daily Times, March 17, 2011 - Julie Jopp: ‘The darkened space of the Blue Oyster Gallery provides the perfect setting for Andy Leleisi'uao's work. Unusual floating creatures known to the artist as cryptids have been transformed from a life on canvas into three-dimensional creations in an installation called Arytipidal. Andy Leleisi'uao, a New Zealand-born Samoan artist is better known for his paintings, in which his earlier work critiqued the social, cultural and political realities of Samoans living in New Zealand.
However, he has lately taken a more light-hearted approach to his work and it is this approach he takes in Arytipidal. The viewer is greeted by the artist's imaginary black and red cryptids which appear to take on a life of their own as they float in their small polystyrene vessels toward a mysterious destination. Some are trapped behind toothpick fences or within the confines of their craft. Aesthetically arranged on each of the vessels are red shapes, some taking the form of painted feathers and stones, perhaps suggesting fire, blood, a jewel or the heart.
There are reminders, too, of traditional Samoan handiwork seen in the grid patterns of the box shapes that float in the vessels. A light-bulb sun in one corner creates a mysterious atmosphere, adding to the curiosity of the scene. Leleisi'uao's installation is experimental, complex and refined, challenging the viewer to look upon it as a narrative that could either be a myth, metaphor or even a personal journey’.

Artinfo on VOLTA NY, March 4, 2011 - Ben Davis: ‘Last but not least, the award for "Gallery That Came From the Farthest Away" has to go to Beachcomber Contemporary Art, which hails all the way from the Cook Islands. The gallery was presenting paintings by Andy Leleisi'uao, which drew me in with their echoes of Joan Miró. They depict hieroglyphic-like rows of spidery shadow figures with dots of primary colors for faces, the hills of an island landscape looming over them in the background. They were $1,500 for the smaller canvasses (one was sold), and went up to $8,500 for a large, two-sided piece that was suspended by wires in the center of the booth.
Leleisi'uao himself had flown in all the way from the Cook Islands, and was on hand in the booth to explain the elaborate mythology he had build up behind the strange rainbow-people who live in his painted island world. He described the works as a newer, more hopeful series for him, having focused more on political issues in New Zealand in earlier pieces.
As for what he thought of Volta, he said, "It's just great to be here. I'm soaking it all in." His gentle optimism was infectious, and the delight of discovering his works represented everything that is most pleasant about this fair’.

Weekend Herald, November 13, 2010 - Adam Gifford: ‘Limiting his palette to black on white with touches of red, he divided each canvas by horizontal lines, like the pages of a school exercise book, and painted small figures along each line. The figures seem to be engaged in work or play or ritual or conflict. The newspaper – strip format suggests storytelling and narrative, or even multi-perspective view of village life.

The work on show at Whitespace reads as one large work although it is in fact 12 individual paintings which can be hung separately or combined in a range of formats’.

The Press, August 6, 2010 - Jamie Hanton: ‘Wandering through Pandemonium Quiet is a welcome progression for painter Andy Leleisi'uao, whose work expands in both scale and thematic scope from his previous offerings. In this epic work, two sets of nine panel canvases, named Pa'ceania Part 1 and 2, are hung floating side-by-side and back-to-back down the middle of the Mair Gallery to create a wall stretching almost 15 metres. Forcing the viewer to turn inward, away from the walls, an idea that reverberates in the psychologically intense painting of the 2010 recipient of the McCahon House residency.
There is something primitive, almost atavistic in the figures that populate these panels: humanistic, demonic and bestial creatures mingle in ambiguous scenes of struggle over nine levels of an underground complex, the same number of circles in Dante's Inferno.
More than a hint then, of humanity's potential for darkness emphasised in a striking tonal and spatial dualism: black paint on white canvas, opposing sides of two canvas walls, which cannot be viewed simultaneously. Yet, the red smears and uneven polka dots in rainbow colours hint that nothing is ever black and white, and that it takes more than a coat of bright paint to suppress certain grievances
…..Wandering Through Pandemonium Quiet does break its own ground with its vibrant restless energy and the vast number of references and readings possible. Images crowd for attention, yet crucially, and in contrast, the grid format imbues the work with a calming simplicity leading to the possibility of a multi-linear narrative akin to hieroglyphics or cave painting. Utilising these ancient forms of expression Leleisi'uao engages in reportage and story telling in the grandest tradition’.

The Press, July 17, 2010 - Christopher Moore: ‘Andy Leleisi'uao is an artist who deals with realities which continue to shatter the conventional and cliched images of the Pacific. "So many people try to label us and put us in boxes," he once said. "They try to tell us what we are, who we are and what they perceive us to be . . . we are artists." And so it is in Leleisi'uao's extraordinary art, which collides with the realities of fa'a Samoa in the 21st century rather than dwelling among the lingering sundrenched images of Polynesia. In his new exhibition at Christchurch's Centre Of Contemporary Art, Leleisi'uao deals head- on with these processes and effects but on a truly epic scale, with huge canvases which take us on a journey filled with confrontation, rich imagery and uncomfortable truths. What emerges from this Auckland-born artist's imagination is a potent reflection of a cultural interplay as restless and ever-changing as the Pacific Ocean itself’.

COCA Galley, July 6, 2010 - David Khan: ‘…one might also read Leleisi'uao's paintings as visualisations of what Norman Bryson has dubbed the 'image stream' - the parade of images, continually reproduced and re-combined, that define contemporary visual culture. Thus, it is tempting to see, in the horizontal striations defining the grounds of many of Leleisi'uao's recent works, an evocation of the raster scan on a television screen. The weightless, Bacchanalian frenzies of the artist's figures seem to exemplify the groundlessness of identity in the current epoch, whilst their containment within cells and compartments speaks of identity as both fragmented and sequential - a series of shifting, layered frames in a continually evolving, cross-cultural cartoon or film strip’.

The Huffington Post, April 28, 2010 - Yazmany Arboleda: ‘…the work of Andy Leleisi’uao, Samoan-born New Zealand-based artist, had particular resonance in its Manhattan setting. Created for this event, a set of seven acrylic-on-canvas rectangles are aligned horizontally and named individually from left to right, with the days of the week beginning with Thursday. A hollow sun in the middle of a deep blue sky lands right on the center of the arrangement, on Sunday. Masterfully choreographed, the streetscape depicts a bustling New York City. The streets are full of alien beings, silhouettes of half-human half-animal living things, with red and white striped bodies and blue heads. These read as New Yorkers: on the phone, carrying bags, walking along the masses, purposefully heading towards nothingness. The piece scrutinizes the humanscape of individuality in society through a stream of enigmatic imagery. It is Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights transplanted to the big apple, and divided by seven instead of three. The style of the silhouettes is similar to the work of artist Kara Walker. Both Leleisi'uao's and Walker's figures work to bridge unfinished folklore in Samoan as well as African-American culture while raising identity issues’.

Art Rader Asia, April 12, 2010 - Kate Nicholson: ‘Leleisi’uao began his artistic career as a widely celebrated social commentator on Samoans living in New Zealand; his paintings controversially exploring issues associated the Samoan diaspora. As he has developed his style, he has begun to both internalize and universalize these themes, exploring fantastical worlds and opening his art to a global audience. His early art can be uncomfortable to view, often described by critics as confronting and controversial. In these works, his themes and intentions are obvious to the viewer; he shouts them from the canvas. During the late 1990’s, Leleisi’uao’s paintings were highly politicized, socially motivated and somewhat autobiographical. He dealt obviously with the societal problems - domestic violence, poverty, unemployment and youth suicide - faced by blue-collar Pacific Island, particularly Samoan, immigrants to New Zealand’.

National Business Review, April 12, 2010 - John Daly-Peoples: ‘Over the years the artist’s works has become more complex and the current exhibition is a long way from his early works where his angry paintings and constructions were almost visceral in their intensity. He is now producing a sophisticated body of work which explores the nature of individual, social, political and religious corruption.’

Gaynewzealand.com, May 22, 2009 - Matt Akersten: ‘The QuiqCorp gallery crew say they're very happy with the response they've had to Queer Takes so far, and would consider holding it again in future Pride Weeks. But one of the artworks was yanked off display following a complaint from the owners of the building which houses the art gallery. Its overt sexuality had proved a little bit challenging to some of the more delicate Christchurch sensibilities! One local lesbian, Pauline Hampton, told GayNZ.com she was "really angry" that the painting had been censored. "This exhibition is supposed to be an expression of our lives," she explained. "I don't care if it's cocks or what – who do they think they are, pulling any of it off the wall?" ….’

The New Zealand Herald, April 11, 2009 - T. J. McNamara: ‘At Whitespace, Andy Lelesi’uao, whose work goes from strength to strength, continues the development of his ideas of a cloudy world as an interior monologue. This takes place inside a head with two profiles. Outside, a populace of tiny figures is produced by the conflict of thought and feeling within their minds. The figures hint at, rather than illustrate, moral and spiritual conflicts. Many have wings and could be angels or devils that recall those sculptures and paintings of Moses (see Michelangelo replica in Myers Park), where they represent enlightenment. There is a limited group of colours black, blue, a fiery red and orange.
In two paintings bands of pale blue are made by letting the paint run. This is only one of the variations on the basic design. Others show compartments each filled with it’s own little drama. The most complex of the works make everything stem from a darkness at the bottom of the painting. Others use clouds of orange as the primal source of all the fiery activity. Each painting has a lot of detail to follow and interpret. Sometimes these small details can be very striking as in Sipifa’a Heads, where a splendid demon is seated on a rock at the base of painting. There is nothing comfortable about this copious work but it certainly has an enigmatic power and scope for individual response to the meaning of it’s figures’ weird dance.’

National Business Review, 3 April, 2009 - John Daly-Peoples: ‘His work has always been confronting and controversial with a strong social concern to it providing a window to the realities of life for Pacific people and particularly Samoan living in New Zealand. They suffer the problems of the migrant worker and the social dislocation which creates social problems for many. But he also highlights the issues of family violence and the oppressive and destructive roles of the churches in Pacific communities. At times his work was raw and obvious, a screaming at injustices that he saw. In these more recent works though the voice is more moderated and rather than a Pacific voice the works have a more universal theme of social and moral dysfunction and alienation.

The title of the exhibition refers to "aitu" which are ghosts or spirits and presents an ambivalent view of the misty worlds of the spiritual. The impression one gains is that the invented gods and spirits of the Pacific and the Christian religion are figments of our imagination and the things that motivate and define us are held within us. These Armageddon-like landscapes blaze with colour and energy and akin to a medieval dance of death where the common folk are worked up into levels of hysteria about the coming end of the world and a vengeful god

Most of the works feature a two faced figure bearing horns which could represent the dual nature of human beings. Inside this figure are various structures, sometimes a tree form but more often a series of platforms or shelves containing small contorted figures and emblematic shapes.
In some works such as Putasiti Heads ($3800) these figures are contained in a series of cells like display units or film frames. Other areas of the paintings are peopled with winged figures, angels and demons, bringers of salvation and damnation. These works draw loosely on a number of sources; there are Grecian vase ornaments, the medieval works of Bosch and Breughel, and the exoticism of Gustave Moreau. In Matasio Heads ($6800) they connect stylistically with John Pule's layered narrative works. Some works such as Gupusafa Heasds ($5400) with its cavorting figures seems to derive from the Dance of Death sequence in Ingmar Bergman’s film The Seventh Seal and there are also stylistic simalrities to the bullfight sketches of Pablo Picasso. These are the visions of an apocalyptic nightmare are forced on a populations by naive and corrupting religious ministers who want to frighten people with primitive beliefs and attempt to deny the individual their own moral sense of right and wrong.“

Andy Leleisi’uao, April, 2009 – Ron Brownson: ‘I never want to forget my encounter with Andy’s solo show at Auckland’s Aotea Centre in July 1996. His art appeared too raw, too streetwise, for that polished and pristine space. The paintings and drawings offered an exhilarating take on a local realism that was much more terrifying than pleasant. The painter’s furious response to our society astonished me. Andy crammed his brutalized subjects with visceral stories focused on the daily lives of Samoan immigrants to New Zealand. He saw a disadvantaged community gripped with pain, violence, anger and despair. There was a little humour but it was knowing, acerbic and self-deprecatory, with hardly enough space for elation…Before 2000, I felt that Andy’s art operated as if it was a vocal advocate prosecuting our culture’s racism. The irony is that we may all be witnesses guilty of intolerance and living as complicit cohorts in a society of bigots. No one is exempt from injustice. What can rescue the blind? We are shown as living amonst what Andy calls ‘The Brownest Dawn’ and ‘The Patterns of My Lavalava.

Andy Leleisi’uao, April, 2009 – Dr. Pam Zeplin: ‘…my first encounter with the artists work at Sydney’s Casula Powerhouse in 1998 in Furious, a Pacific Wave Festival exhibition by Leleisi’uao and Australian artist Gordon Hookey. I was uncharacteristically gobsmacked by this show, in particular by Leleisi’uao’s images. Here in Sydney’s outer west, the deeply religious heartland of a large Pacific diaspora, were paintings shrieking with pain, grief and indignation, exposing tabu issues from the other side of a sunny Samoan society. Far from the presenting Pacific picture, images of youth suicide, corruption and domestic violence were flung out there for public ridicule. With ‘Samoan born ministers are wankers’ scrawled across its background. Honest to God savagely and courageously painted the power and greed of Christian pastors devouring a poverty-stricken country which is dependent on overseas remittance payments. Even with minimal knowledge of fa’a Samoa. I recognized this as dangerous cultural territory and was astonished that firstly, the exhibition remained open and secondly, the artist was not physically attacked: two situations that, apparently, nearly occurred.’

The New Zealand Herald May 01, 2008 - T. J. McNamara: ‘There is a return to something like self-portrait in the work of Andy Leleisi’uao at Whitespace Gallery until May 10. It falls between drawing and painting and is usually the outline of a head and shoulders in profile. Sometimes there are two profiles of faces. Within the outline are black drawings of demons and moments of sweetness and hands reaching down from the top of the skull. There are red figures of dancers and hearts of joy. On the outside of the shoulders are figures journeying as if over a mountain. What is represented is an inner reality at it’s best when there is a stem running through the centre of these symbolic brains‘.

The Press, March 22, 2006 - John Coley: ‘…A social critic, he looks at Pacifica culture and where others see attractive Polynesian imagery, colorful quilts, graceful wahine, cheerful markets and old-time Christian values, Leleisi’uao see empty frangipani art, racial slurs, a cheap labour force and pastors living well poor parishioners. There’ more than a touch of South park and Bro’ Town in his attitude. Though he has a growing audience for his work, life as an independent artist has not been easy for one whose painting works against the grain‘.

Canterbury, University of Canterbury No.1, 2004 - Dr. Karen Stevenson, Senior Lecturer in the School of Fine Arts: ‘In 1999 Andy quietly changed the direction of the arts produced during the residency programme. In his subtle yet blunt way, he addressed the social realities not only of Samoans living in New Zealand, but of many immigrant societies…’

New Zealand Painting, A Concise History, 2003 ISBN 1869402979, 9781869402976 - Michael Dunn: ‘…It can be argued that contemporary Polynesian painting has an identity that is distinctive to Aotearoa New Zealand. While the works are now receiving critical and curatorial attention. There is still many people who are unduly dismissive of the art and its makers. There is still a sense of the fringe about this work, despite it‘s obvious importance from a number of social and political perspectives. For a country with the history and the diverse ethic mix of New Zealand, the art and artists of Polynesian distraction can only be ignored or downplayed at a cost. There are still battles to be fought in this arena. The paintings and their subject matter still raise strong emotions and reactions at a time when much other painting often does not. For example the works of Andy Leleisi’uao (b. 1969) deal abrasively with the realities of Pacific Island blue collar workers and the ugly side of their lives in New Zealand. He presents a contrast to the colorful Pacific image by dealing with themes of despair, unemployment and hopelessness, even suicide. These works are uncomfortable and troubling for those who want to ignore the darker side of Pacific immigration. But they are highly relevant in cities like Auckland and Wellington, where growing numbers of Pacific Island people face a range of social pressures that lead to friction and discontent...’    

Pacific Arts Association Conference 2003 - Ron Brownson: ‘…Andy was telling stories that inhabited his life with images as if words had coalesced into yawping two-dimensional pictures. I use the word yawping advisedly - because they were screams of cultural rebellion and affirmation. More so, here was Andy’s Mangere reality manifested as a dreamed of nightmare. The effects of being a Samoan man who had lived within a specific Pacific community. He was showing me what it meant to live outside of a larger colonially constructed society. This relationship was disjunctive, disaffected and angry. It was visually registered as an historical drama lived as a consciousness of New Zealand in the present…Andy Leleisi’uao’s art of 1997, is intensely politicized - it is narrative - it is autobiographical, it deals with historical facts - it is filled with emotion that yawps off the surface into one’s heart and guts. This is art that screams for the recognition and honour of social justice’.

Pacific Art Association Conference, Against the Grain: Counter-Images of Urban Pacific Identity 2003, (edited version) - Caroline Vercoe MA, Auckland University Senior Lecturer: ‘…Leleisi’uao’s work emerges as a telling and insightful contrast to the colour, festivities and general brightness that characterizes popular media representations of Pacific Islands cultures. Unlike many Pacific artists, he has tackled political and social issues in a confrontational manner that has at times put him at odds with local communities….He has also expressed concerns relating to the pressure or vigorous encouragement placed on Pacific young people to articulate their creative experience in motif forms that may not have much relevance to their urban experiences or day-to-day lives….Andy Leleisi’uao’s works emerge as telling, challenging and often innovative glimpses of urban Pacific experiences. His often fraught and anxious images reflect his strong engagement with the disturbing realities experienced by migrant, marginalized groups. His focus on domestic violence, generation gaps, broken families, suicide and exile have at times put him at odds with local communities. His softly spoken ways contrast dramatically with his confrontational canvases. So strongly does he feel about the issues he explores, that he has made a conscious effort to exhibit and do workshops within Pacific communities. This illustrates a firm commitment towards encouraging change and prompting dialogue within families and communities. His strategic decision to avoid recognizably Pacific motifs and his creation of new symbols to articulate urban Pacific migrant experience highlight refracted and conflicting experiences. His notion of dispossession becomes a broad and multifaceted means by which to explore not only the experience of migrants arriving and negotiating new ways, but also of New Zealand born generations who must try to reconcile a plethora of points of view.’