- Christina Pataialii now represented exclusively by McLeavey Gallery
Christina Pataialii is working on a new collection of paintings that will be exhibited at McLeavey Gallery from 03 Jun 2020 – 05 Jul 2020.
In advance of the exhibition, we have a small selection of paintings available. Please contact Grace for more information about Christina Pataialii or a list of available works. Available works can be viewed any time by appointment.
About Christina Pataialii
Christina Pataialii’s bold, expressive paintings are alive with movement, colour and a sense of immediacy. Celebrated for her distinctive approach that mixes high and low materials – acrylic, house paint, spray paint and charcoal – and her eye for colour, her work exudes a sense of dynamic energy.
Often working directly onto drop sheet canvas – a material that allows her to work on a large scale – Pataialii enjoys breaking with convention and experimenting with her medium. The seam of the drop cloth becomes a compositional tool. The weave of the fabric creates texture against which paint is expertly manipulated. The notorious flatness of house paint plays with perceptions of space, depth and distance.
Pataialii has a personal relationship with drop cloth and house paint. The daughter of a house painter, she grew up in a Samoan/Pakeha family in West Auckland, often tagging along on jobs with her father. The memory of observing him work and the physicality of house painting is something that echoes through her practice.
Drawing on personal and collective history, Pataialii’s paintings operate in a liminal space between abstraction and representation. Deliberately ambiguous they feature familiar suburban motifs such as picket fences, rugby boots and knobbly knees set against lush, evocatively realised landscapes. Forms are built up, merge into their surroundings and are obscured.
Using these motifs and tapping into shared ideas of cultural and national identity, Pataialii explores questions of belonging and heritage.
Pataialii graduated with a Masters of Fine Art from Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design in 2018 and the day after graduation she opened a major exhibition Solid Gold at Te Tuhi, Auckland. Prior to that, she was awarded the 2017 Iris Fisher Scholarship. In 2019 she held solo exhibitions in Auckland (On the Lam, Tim Melville Gallery) and Wellington (Wouldn’t it be Nice, McLeavey Gallery). The same year, 2019, she was awarded the Rydal Art Prize and the prestigious Gasworks Residency in London.
Now living and working in Wellington, Pataialii is looking forward to another outstanding year, with exhibitions at the City Gallery in Wellington (A Place Apart, 4 April–2 August) and at the Tauranga Art Gallery (2 May – 20 September).
Gallery Update
We recognise that these are unique and challenging times and would like to send our love and best wishes to artists, clients and friends of the gallery.
The gallery has now temporarily closed as a result of the concerns over spreading COVID-19, but the art is still available. Please do contact us by emailing grace@mcleaveygallery.com. Our exhibitions are also available to view online.
Kia kaha x