b. 1995 in Palmerston North
Lives and works in Aotearoa, New Zealand
Ngai Tamanuhiri
Rongowhakaata
Ngati Porou
Ngati Pahauwera
Rarotonga and Pākeha
Kauri Hawkins is a multidisciplinary Māori artist whose practice examines contemporary Aotearoa/New Zealand through a Māori lens. Working across sculpture, installation, painting, performance, digital media and industrial materials, Hawkins explores the intersections of whakapapa, labour, infrastructure, land and identity. His work often draws from the visual language of road works, public systems and colonial architecture, reframing familiar objects and environments to question power, ownership and the shaping of Māori experience within modern New Zealand.
Grounded in tikanga and storytelling, Hawkins’ practice navigates the tension between ancestral knowledge and contemporary life. Through the transformation of everyday materials — from road signs and native timber to construction motifs and urban symbolism — he challenges colonial narratives while creating space for Māori perspectives, humour and resilience. His works function as both critique and reflection, examining how histories of displacement, development and governance continue to shape relationships to whenua and community.
At the core of Hawkins’ practice is an interest in movement: between past and present, rural and urban, tradition and adaptation. By merging customary references with contemporary forms, his work seeks to create new visual conversations around Māori identity in Aotearoa/New Zealand today.
Hawkins is from Muriwai, Tūranganui-a-Kiwa and has tribal affiliations to Ngai Tamanuhiri and Ngati Porou, Rongowhakaata, Ngati Pahauwera and Pākeha. He also descends from the Island of Aitiutaki in the Cook Islands.Hawkins has exhibited in galleries throughout New Zealand and Australia, most recently at the Canberra Art Biennale (2022) and at CHALK HORSE, Sydney (2022). His carved Kauri native timber sculpture, Kauri Pou Whenua, featured at the Waiheke Sculpture on the Gulf, 2019, which is now part of a significant private collection in Aotearoa, New Zealand. This year he received a commission from the Aotearoa Art Fair for his installation “From Bush to Bunnings”, where he also exhibited at CHALK HORSE’s showing. This year he also presented a suite of works for Herehere, a group exhibition at Te Uru gallery.
His work is held in: Wallace Arts Trust, Arts House Trust, Wellington City Art Collection, Bath Street Arts Trust, and Private collections in Aotearoa.
