Nanette Lela'ulu

“Sombre intensity shot with notes of beauty, chords of darkness held up by smidgens of hope.  This music underscores the paintings of Nanette Lela'ulu...” NZ Art News 1999.

An exhibiting artist for the past 20 years, Lela'ulu completed her Marsters in Arts Therapy (Hons) from Whitecliff School of Fine Arts in 2006 and was awarded the Creative New Zealand Artist in Residence to the Cook Islands in the same year. Forming a strong bond with Rarotonga that is still evident today, Lela'ulu features prominently with BCA in 2012.

The artists first exhibition, Unsung Song reunites a series of  large portraits originally shown as part of the broader exhibition In the House of my Heart , (2010).  The portraits are  re-presented as a stand-alone exhibition to deliver a compelling experience of contemporary, pacific based characters. This show serves as  a preview to the larger portrait show RESPECT that will open @ BCA in late April. The artists return to portraiture signals a passionate revitalization of her earlier work and themes.

In December 2012/January 2013, Lela’ulu features 40 small, intriguingly detailed island landscapes. Following on from her sell out landscape exhibition ‘Snapshots from the back of my bike’(BCA, 2011), the artist advances her study of a decaying pacific culture and its inevitable transition in a modern environment.

Nanette Lela'ulu Selected Exhibitions:

2012: Unsung Song, BCA, Rarotonga; RESPECT, BCA Rarotonga.   

2011: Snapshots from the back of my Bike, BCA Gallery, Rarotonga.

2010: In the House of my Heart, The Art Studio, Rarotonga.

2009 : PAN PACIFIC, Honolulu, Hawaii.

2008: DUSKY VIXENS, Oedipus Rex Gallery, Auckland;  Samoa Contemporary, Pataka Museum, Wellington.

2007: Measina F’a fafine’, Artstation, Auckland. Curated by Shigeyuki Kihara.

2006: All that we are...The Art Studio, Rarotonga / Creative NZ Artist in Residence; Project, The Artists Room, Dunedin;  Artworks 2006, Exhibition and sale of Contemporary NZ Art, Diocesan School, Auckland; Group Show, Blue Orange Gallery, Tuakau, Franklin District.

2005: Ashes to Ashes - Dust to Dust, Salamander Gallery, The Arts Centre, Christchurch; alchemy + meaning, MARCO gallery / project space, Eden Terrace, Auckland City.

2004: Fatu i le ele'ele' (seed of the earth), Whitespace Gallery, Auckland.

2003: A Tribute to Western Samoa, Salamander Gallery, The Arts Centre, Christchurch (Exhibition with Andy Leleisi’uao)

2002: Deconstruction of Humanity, Oedipus Rex Gallery, Auckland.

2001: Sorrowful Scars Become Us,  Oedipus Rex Gallery, Auckland; If there's something to be stolen I steal it/Picasso, Oedipus Rex Gallery, Auckland.

2000: The Silence Within, Oedipus Rex Gallery, Auckland; The Contemporary Art Biennale, Tjibaou Cultural Centre, New Caledonia

1998: Fireworks, Art of the Pacific Age, Aotea Centre Auckland City; Tautalatala, Oedipus Rex Gallery, Auckland; Exhibition of Contemporary Samoan Art, Frankfurt, Germany.

1997: Women Artists in Aotea, Aotea Centre, Auckland.

1996: Fa’afetai, Oedipus Rex Gallery, Auckland.