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 Māori artist whose works comments on contemporary New Zealand issues through a Māori lens. Working with diverse materials and art forms from road signs and sculptures to performance art and videography. Challenging the cultural significance of objects and colonial notions as a means of self-reflection and artistic expression.
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. He was born in Palmerston North in 1995 and raised in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa (Gisborne), New Zealand. He currently lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand.
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.
