Michael Parekōwhai (Ngāriki Rotoawe and Ngāti Whakarongo) is Emeritus Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland. For more than 30 years, he has continued his whānau’s passion for, and commitment to, education.
Working across the disciplines of sculpture, installation and photography, the artist’s career spans more than three decades and multiple continents. In 2011, he was the sole presenter for New Zealand at the 54th Venice Biennale and was awarded the Premier of Queensland’s Sculpture Commission for The World Turns (2011–2012). He also received the Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award in 2001 and was appointed a Te Apārangi Fellow by the Royal Society in 2017.
Parekōwhai plays with scale, space and time, skewering the intersections between national and personal narratives, colonial histories and popular culture. His work therefore consistently challenges and expands the possibilities of contemporary art.