Waking up to the Obscurity PeopleAndy Leleisi’uao

17th July - 15th August 2014

251 Parnell Road; Habitat Courtyard; ph 09 3774832; www.ppg.net.nz

In his new series, ‘Waking up to the Obscurity People’, Andy Leleisi’uao continues his exploration into the possibility of other, self-created worlds, where he sees a merging of our reality with an imaginary enlightened world as a metaphor for our day to day existence. The societies he creates in these ‘other worlds’ share common activities and situations, inviting comparisons with our own experience of the everyday.

The fluidity of Leleisi’uao’s visual language is such that the eye easily moves across and between the layers, taking in his single ‘snapshot’ of activity. Separated into strata of different size and colour, the strong horizontals invite reading from left to right, and top to bottom, as with the [Western] written word. Like single pages from the same book, each painting represents a moment in time, but simultaneously suggests that it sits within a larger continuum. Leleisi’uao’s busy creatures appear to have a past and a future beyond the picture plane.

In ‘Waking up to the Obscurity People’, Leleisi’uao expands his visual motifs library which reoccurs throughout his practice and which he employs as points of reference. The silhouetted hands and facial profiles seen in previous bodies of work, symbols of the everyday have been incorporated into these new paintings. While new figures and characters appear, viewers can connect with the sense of common humanity that underlies Leleisi’uao’s practice.

Andy Leleisi’uao lives in Auckland. In 2000 he was the first recipient of AUT School of Art and Design Pasifika Scholarship and gained a Master of Fine Arts with honours in 2002. He has received a number of residencies including the Research

Scholarship, at the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, University of Canterbury in 2008, Artist in Residence, BCA, Raro-tonga, Cook Islands in 2009 and Artist in Residence, McCahon House, Titirangi, Auckland in 2010. He has exhibited throughout in New Zealand and has been involved in solo and group exhibitions in Australia, Rarotonga, Germany, Taiwan, and the USA. His work is included in the permanent collections of Pataka Museum and Art Gallery, Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, the Chartwell Collection, and the Wallace Arts Trust collection.

Part IAcrylic on canvas

760 x 1520 mm, 2014

Part IIAcrylic on canvas

760 x 1520 mm, 2014

Part IIIAcrylic on canvas

760 x 1520 mm, 2014

Part IVAcrylic on canvas

760 x 1520 mm, 2014

Part VAcrylic on canvas

760 x 1520 mm, 2014

Part VIAcrylic on canvas

760 x 1520 mm, 2014

Part VIIAcrylic on canvas

760 x 1520 mm, 2014

Part VIIIAcrylic on canvas

760 x 1520 mm, 2014

Andy Leleisi’uaoWaking up to the Obscurity People

17th July - 15th August 2014

1. Part I Acrylic on canvas 760 x 1520 mm , 2014 $7,500

2. Part II Acrylic on canvas 760 x 1520 mm , 2014 $7,500

3. Part III Acrylic on canvas 760 x 1520 mm , 2014 $7,500

4. Part IV Acrylic on canvas 760 x 1520 mm , 2014 $7,500

5. Part V Acrylic on canvas 760 x 1520 mm , 2014 $7,500

6. Part VI Acrylic on canvas 760 x 1520 mm , 2014 $7,500

7. Part VII Acrylic on canvas 760 x 1520 mm , 2014 $7,500

8. Part VIII Acrylic on canvas 760 x 1520 mm , 2014 $7,500

251 Parnell Road; Habitat Courtyard; ph 09 3774832; www.ppg.net.nz