Michel Tuffery

For background on the artist and works, see below.

Current Works

About the Artist

“Manuia le aso. Kia orana. Ia ora na. Greetings. I’m Michel Tuffery, a New Zealand-based artist of Samoan, Rarotongan and Ma’ohi Tahitian heritage. My kaupapa within my art practice is the role of working “in between” as a connector by placing a fresh lens on environmental, community, cultural and art historical divides. I had the benefit of being in the first wave of artists with Pacific ancestry to work within the contemporary art world and we all came to prominence in the early 1990’s. I’ve sustained an amazing art career, with incredible platforms to engage myself creatively all over the world. As an active participator in contemporary culture my artwork is curated into major international exhibitions and commissions. Having undertaken numerous research and community residencies throughout the USA, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Asia, India, Australia and much closer to home Aotearoa and proudly the Pacific.” 

Recent Works

Conversations with the past, whanau, and the fragile environment underpin the latest journey through time by Michel Tuffery – a story of being human and connected in other ways, in a technological world.

History flows through into the present day, in this leading Pacific-NZ artist’s use of precious tapa fragments laid onto paper. He allows some of the original lines and drawings on the tapa cloth, as well as the texture, to come through in his overlay of painting, in what he describes as ‘a collaboration with the past’. ‘The lines are like middens, I don’t get rid of those, just work with it, in conversations with those stories.’ The fibre is the ‘hard drive’ – carrying memory, and when it meets the paper, the work is the response. Ancient Lapita pottery shards from Pacific history become a metaphor for the fragility of our environment, pieced together again as a foundation for other motifs of the natural world. Missing fragments reveal a glimpse of the past, through Tuffery’s painterly lens.

Finding taonga goes back to his childhood visits to museums, initiating a fascination with archaeology and anthropology; now, Tuffery has personal connections with major museums internationally, and rare invitations to view and handle precious taonga first hand.

It’s not just about sight, touch and sound. There’s the first smell, a flower over an ear, or coconut oil, as he steps off the plane onto Pacific homeland, greeted by family; or the aroma of taro or kumara signalling home. He uses the original palette of tapa woodblock, overlaid with the moana (ocean) blue, and vivid greens of nature, promising revival.

Human beings are what we touch, he says – like the digital world and the phone; or the plants and ancient stones. Tuffery holds out an ancient black volcanic rock, from Hawaii. This USB stick carries memory, of generations, places, identity and origin, an enduring place in the world.

More About the Artist

Michel Tuffery is a prominent New Zealand-based artist of Samoan, Rarotongan and Ma’ohi Tahitian heritage. Within his art practice he plays the role of working “in between” people and places, and focusing a fresh lens on environmental, community, cultural and art historical divides.

His intense engagement with anthropology and archaeology through the Pacific, have brought close relationships with major international museums and institutions, and rare invitations to handle taonga or precious artefacts of history in their collections – connecting through to the stories and memories of past generations and interconnections of cultures. A recent project was a collaboration on the stunning design of the new Dunedin Public Library.

Tuffery is a passionate educator who openly shares his kaupapa and knowledge to empower our youth through residencies and workshops for school-aged children in New Zealand and abroad. He exhibits worldwide and has undertaken research and community residencies throughout the USA, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Asia, India, Australia, as well as Aotearoa and the Pacific. In 2008 Michel was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to art – his ongoing rewards come from enriching communities through his art.