“I pull all that I can into my work. I am inspired by everything from swimming to listening to music to watching my two daughters painting. Life should be inspiring.” ¹

Israel Tangaroa Birch (Ngāpuhi, Ngāi Tawake, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Rakaipaaka) is considered one of New Zealand’s most talented Māori artists. Working with steel and lacqueur, the mirror polish of his patterned works appears to absorb light and then refract it back from layers that sit just below the surface of the picture plane. The entire work becomes suffused with luminous colour and rich shadows, and ripples as the viewer or the light source shifts.

Birch’s works are the result of grinding and carving into steel and they seem to retain this tactility of their making. There is a sense that the movement and sound produced in their creation is embedded into the material of the work, Birch’s attempt to push the medium to its limit.

In his public installations, Birch applies his iconic style and use of symbolism to enrich the onlooker’s experience of the environment. Widely acclaimed project, Te Rau Karamu Marae (2021), stands at Massey University’s Pukeahu Campus in Te Whanganui, embodies the vision, “to create a wharekai that moved and breathed like the vitality of Tangaroa and Hinemoana.” ²

Birch holds a Masters in Maori Visual Arts from Massey University. He has received several significant awards including the Norsewear Art Award 2006, 2005 and 2004, and the Te Karahipi o Te Waka Toi Award in 2005.

Birch is both an artist and an educator having previously held tenure as a lecturer at Massey University, Te Pūtahi-a-Toi, Bachelor of Māori Visual Arts. He has had solo and group exhibitions throughout New Zealand and in Australia, Canada and Europe.