Gregory O’Brien

For background on the artist and works, see below.

Current Works

About the Artist

Since 2011, painter and poet Gregory O’Brien has followed the migratory routes of whales and sea birds across vast tracts of the South Pacific Ocean.
Many of his paintings and prints are the result of time spent on a number of islands – Raoul Island (in the Kermadecs), Whakaari/White Island and Tuhua/Mayor Island (in the Bay of Plenty) as well as Rapanui/ Easter Island, Tongatapu and the Chathams.
His works are a poetic exploration of these outlying places, the ocean between them, and the whale species and sea birds which are found there, and of our own cultural and personal linkages with places in the Pacific.
Born in Matamata (1961) and now based in Wellington, Gregory O’Brien is a poet, painter, curator, essayist, and printmaker. He frequently works in collaboration with John Pule, prominent Niue-NZ artist (see separate artwork listings under represented artists).

His book Always Song in the Water, part field notebook, part whale survey, part memoir, offers further insight into his paintings and printmaking; copies are available from good bookstores or Auckland University Press.