Josh Kiwikiwi, pictured with a commissioned work Harata at Auckland's Eden Park this year, where he was a feature artist in the country's largest art exhibition Art in the Park.
Was he a Māori artist, or simply an artist who is Māori?
Whangārei painter Josh Kiwikiwi says it wasn’t until he answered that question that his work flourished.
It also gave him the clarity in early 2024 to quit his 9-5 job in clothing retail management and commit to the business of making art fulltime - a risk, he admits, but one that fulfilled a lifelong ambition.
“I’ve always wanted to be an artist. I just didn’t know what type of art I’d make,” Kiwikiwi, 29, of Ngātiwai, Ngātihine, and Ngāpuhi descent said.
As a teenager at Whangārei Boys’ High School he swore he’d never be a portrait artist.
He went on to study SPFX makeup, hair, sculpture, and set design, aiming for a career in the film industry. But after his studies, he returned to Whangārei and took up portraiture.
Largely self-taught, Kiwikiwi avoided too much research into established art practice, preferring to experiment.
“I was just always dabbling and doing the odd group exhibition here and there.”
Some of those exhibitions were international. Before he ventured into Māori art, some of his large, colourful portraits proved popular with London and New York galleries, though the Covid-19 pandemic wiped out his chance to travel there.
The turning point came last year when he began studying te reo Māori at Te Wānanga O Aotearoa in Whangārei.
“It wasn’t just about learning the language, you learn about processes and tikanga and everyday life and that really helped not just to change my mindset, but it also definitely heavily influenced my artistic practice as well.”
Leaving his job was a leap.
“I just said I’ve got enough income from leave to sustain me for the next three months. I’ve just got to work hard and start creating artwork. Then all of a sudden last year I was getting work left, right and centre.”
If any artist has visibly shaped his work, it is the Māori artist Robyn Kahukiwa, who died earlier this year, aged 86, after an acclaimed career that began in the early 1970s.
Kiwikiwi’s first professional series, Wāhine and Gold, featured monochromatic graphite drawings of strong Māori women, highlighted with gold-leaf - a symbol for Kiwikiwi of the enduring spirit, lineage and sacred relationships.
Commissions included memorial works, such as portraits uniting grandparents who had died without ever being photographed together.
“Those are really special things to be able to create for these collectors and clients,” Kiwikiwi said.
The youngest of four, Kiwikiwi and his siblings weren’t immersed in te ao Māori growing up but always had a deep respect for their culture and his artwork has evolved alongside his deepening relationship with his whakapapa as an adult.
As a child, he was always encouraged to pursue the arts by his mother, which differed from his father’s and older brothers’ careers in the military and police.
This year, Kiwikiwi’s work came full circle when he reintroduced colour from his earlier internationally exhibited works into his Māori imagery.
“My mahi is now about reclamation, whakapapa, and storytelling.”
Kiwikiwi said he is “forever learning”.
His latest images are predominantly in paint, merging the gold leaf of his earlier series with a post-modernist, multi-media approach that intricately combines monochrome with vibrant colour, oil and acrylic paints, charcoal, airbrushing and relief sculpture.
There’s the occasional nod to aspects of art history, including Japanese designs that Kiwikiwi also admires, such as the wave motifs often seen in traditional woodblock prints.
The shift paid off. This year, Kiwikiwi won The King’s Trust Artist of the Year award, leading to his selection as a featured artist for Art in the Park, at Auckland’s Eden Park.
His success continued with his work Lines of Whakapapa (Hemi Tiapo Cootes) selected as a finalist in the prestigious Kiingi Tuheitia Portrait Awards.
Kiwikiwi is also experimenting with layering mediums to create cement-like surfaces and plans to use actual cement for some future outdoor works. With help from his mother-in-law and partner, he converted part of their large garage into a studio with harbour views. The space enabled him to scale up his canvases.
His ultimate plan is for a self-sustaining, whānau-driven creative enterprise - one that prints its own artwork, explores fashion and merchandise, and provides opportunities for whānau to grow together.
While his first year as a professional artist was financially tough at first, Kiwikiwi relishes the freedom and challenge.
He sells mainly through online platforms, building up a client base in Canada, the US, the UK, and the Middle East - New Zealand expats, foreign collectors, and buyers of indigenous artworks.
For the past two years, he has also partnered with corporates to create Matariki-inspired works, some donated to Māori charities.
Content creation is another growing part of his business, including endorsements for art materials.
Mentorship matters, Kiwikiwi said, especially from fellow artist James Ormsby in Ōpua.
“The Māori art community is supportive. We all encourage each other, and we remind ourselves there’s space for everybody.”
He wants other aspiring young artists and their whānau to see that with hard work and persistence, an art career is achievable.
Visiting galleries, showing work, asking questions, and seeking guidance from peers are all part of the journey, Kiwikiwi said. Connections built now are invaluable later.
Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years’ experience in journalism, most of which she spent court reporting in Gisborne and on the East Coast.