{"id":153863,"date":"2025-11-26T01:31:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T01:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/153863\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T01:31:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T01:31:12","slug":"josh-kiwikiwis-journey-from-retail-manager-to-award%e2%80%91winning-maori-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/153863\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Kiwikiwi\u2019s journey from retail manager to award\u2011winning M\u0101ori artist"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a teenager at Whang\u0101rei Boys\u2019 High School<\/a> he swore he\u2019d never be a portrait artist. <\/p>\n

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 Whang\u0101rei and took up portraiture. <\/p>\n

Largely self-taught, Kiwikiwi avoided too much research into established art practice, preferring to experiment. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was just always dabbling and doing the odd group exhibition<\/a> here and there.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Itanya,Itanya, one of Kiwikiwi’s early portraits shown in London and New York. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Some of those exhibitions were international. Before he ventured into M\u0101ori 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. <\/p>\n

The turning point came last year when he began studying te reo M\u0101ori at Te W\u0101nanga O Aotearoa in Whang\u0101rei. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leaving his job was a leap. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just said I\u2019ve got enough income from leave to sustain me for the next three months. I\u2019ve just got to work hard and start creating artwork. Then all of a sudden last year I was getting work left, right and centre.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"KiwikiwiKiwikiwi says the acclaimed M\u0101ori artist Robyn Kahukiwa was an important influence on his work. Photo \/ Sarah Curtis<\/p>\n

If any artist has visibly shaped his work, it is the M\u0101ori artist Robyn Kahukiwa, who died earlier this year, aged 86, after an acclaimed career that began in the early 1970s. <\/p>\n

Kiwikiwi\u2019s first professional series, W\u0101hine and Gold, featured monochromatic graphite drawings of strong M\u0101ori women, highlighted with gold-leaf – a symbol for Kiwikiwi of the enduring spirit, lineage and sacred relationships. <\/p>\n

\"OneOne of Kiwikiwi’s W\u0101hine and Gold series Ko Omari Toku Ingoa, a graphite drawing with gold leaf highlights.<\/p>\n

Commissions included memorial works, such as portraits uniting grandparents who had died without ever being photographed together. <\/p>\n

\u201cThose are really special things to be able to create for these collectors and clients,\u201d Kiwikiwi said. <\/p>\n

The youngest of four, Kiwikiwi and his siblings weren\u2019t immersed in te ao M\u0101ori 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. <\/p>\n

As a child, he was always encouraged to pursue the arts by his mother, which differed from his father\u2019s and older brothers\u2019 careers in the military and police. <\/p>\n

This year, Kiwikiwi\u2019s work came full circle when he reintroduced colour from his earlier internationally exhibited works into his M\u0101ori imagery. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy mahi is now about reclamation, whakapapa, and storytelling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kiwikiwi said he is \u201cforever learning\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"MaiMai i te po ki te ao marama – From Darkness into the Enlightened World by Josh Kiwikiwi.<\/p>\n

His latest images are <\/a>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. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The shift paid off. This year, Kiwikiwi won The King\u2019s Trust Artist of the Year award, leading to his selection as a featured artist for Art in the Park, at Auckland\u2019s Eden Park. <\/p>\n

His success continued with his work Lines of Whakapapa (Hemi Tiapo Cootes) selected as a finalist in the prestigious Kiingi Tuheitia Portrait Awards. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\"WhenuaWhenua ukaipo by Josh Kiwikiwi.<\/p>\n

His ultimate plan is for a self-sustaining, wh\u0101nau-driven creative enterprise – one that prints its own artwork, explores fashion and merchandise, and provides opportunities for wh\u0101nau to grow together. <\/p>\n

While his first year as a professional artist was financially tough at first, Kiwikiwi relishes the freedom and challenge. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

For the past two years, he has also partnered with corporates to create Matariki-inspired works, some donated to M\u0101ori charities. <\/p>\n

Content creation is another growing part of his business, including endorsements for art materials. <\/p>\n

\"InIn this painting Kia whakatomuri te haere whakamua, Kiwikiwi refers back to his earlier graphite drawing series and gives a nod to various aspects of art history including a wave motif often seen in traditional Japanese woodcut prints.<\/p>\n

Mentorship matters, Kiwikiwi said, especially from fellow artist James Ormsby in \u014cpua. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe M\u0101ori art community is supportive. We all encourage each other, and we remind ourselves there\u2019s space for everybody.\u201d <\/p>\n

He wants other aspiring young artists and their wh\u0101nau to see that with hard work and persistence, an art career is achievable<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years\u2019 experience in journalism, most of which she spent court reporting in Gisborne and on the East Coast. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a teenager at Whang\u0101rei Boys\u2019 High School he swore he\u2019d never be a portrait artist. He went…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1628,2546,156,71,1433,2203,102328,93,2720,111,139,69,644,21533,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-153863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-artist","9":"tag-awardwinning","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-from","12":"tag-josh","13":"tag-journey","14":"tag-kiwikiwis","15":"tag-manager","16":"tag-mori","17":"tag-new-zealand","18":"tag-newzealand","19":"tag-nz","20":"tag-retail","21":"tag-simply","22":"tag-to"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}