Milford Galleries Dunedin

"Now well-established artist, Reuben Paterson's exquisite use of a material we employ to give the everyday a sprinkle of magic dust - glitter - lifts things out of the real world to let us consider them anew. The patterns and images he adapts are seductive in their familiarity and kitschness, but also in how they have become suddenly, shimmeringly strange." (1)

"Paterson's works can be enjoyed on two levels. One is pure decoration, albeit of such a kitsch variety that only the most reckless interior decorator would employ for the purpose. The second level encompasses the first, but moves beyond into areas of irony, nostalgia and the most sought-after of styles: a synthesis of Maori and European." (2)

"In a broader sense – whakapapa – or genealogy, has always been at the core of Paterson’s work. Of Ngati Rangitihi/ Ngai Tuhoe, Scottish and Pakeha descent, this artist’s work over the past 11 years has recorded, referenced and paid tribute to his whakapapa.” (3)

"The painter himself wants to mystify you with details of Maori genealogy (Whakapapa), personal family history, sexual politics, his relationships and friends, native land rights, fabric, fashion and wallpaper design. Like a spiritually charged textile, they weave a cultural pattern that underscores the fundamental agenda of his artwork." (4)

Paterson continues the contemporary tradition of resuscitating and updating traditional Maori motifs by the use of non-traditional media that can be seen in the work of artists such as Sandy Adsett, Cliff Whiting and Buck Nin. His work extends the traditional Maori use of design and pattern, of weaving and layering. They may resemble glittering piupiu or fishing net or a swatch of fabric, or a detail from an haute-couture creation.

Born in Auckland, New Zealand 1973. Ngati Rangitihi, hapu of Te Arawa and Ngai Tuhoe tribes. He has received numerous awards and residencies including the Moet et Chandon Fellowship to Avize, France in 1997, the youngest recipient and the second Maori to receive the award. In 2005 he won the Development Prize in the Wallace Art Awards - the prize a three-month residency with the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York valued at $15,000. Reuben Paterson has been exhibiting since 1995 and more recently has had numerous prestigious public exhibitions: including the 8th Festival of Pacific Arts Biennale d’Art Contemporian, Noumea, New Caledonia, Te Papa Tongarewa, Museum of New Zealand, Wellington, the International Biennale of Contemporary Art at the National Gallery in Prague the Asia Pacific Triennial in Queensland and the 17th Biennale of Sydney, Australia.

1. Mark Amery, ‘Beastly Beautiful’, Dominion Post, 2011
2. Warwick Brown, Seen This Century, Godwit, 2009
3. Dan Chappell, ‘Diamond Dust and Ancestral Stories’, Art News, Spring 2011
4. Ben Bergman, ‘Kaleidoscope Culture: the Glitter-amas of Reuben Paterson’, Art Monthly Australia, December 2010