St Paul St Gallery are delighted to welcome Cameron Ah Loo-Matamua to St Paul St Gallery to take up the role of Curator (formerly Assistant Director).
Cameron (Sa Matamua; Sa Muagututi'a; Guangdong) is a writer, curator and educator based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Prior to their appointment Cameron engaged with St Paul St Gallery as an independent researcher within the 2018 Symposium, Ko au te au/I am the Ocean, and as co-curator with Director, Charlotte Huddleston on the 2019 two-part exhibition project Two Oceans at Once, shown at St Paul St, and The Physics Room, Ōtautahi. They have recently completed a PGDipFA from the Elam School of Fine Arts where they were also employed as a graduate teaching assistant. Their writing has appeared both nationally and internationally, most recently at Art Basel Hong Kong and Karma Gallery, NYC. Cameron was the 2017 Education Intern at Artspace Aotearoa, working across both curatorial and public programming with a focus on emergent and Moana artists and thinkers.
Cameron says, "I am excited and extremely grateful to be given this opportunity to join the Gallery’s team, especially in the midst of our current global situation. St Paul St's legacy of supporting contemporary artistic practice and critical discussions concerning Aotearoa and the Pacific has been very influential toward my practice, and I am thrilled to be working with the gallery as it continues to focus on and reimagine itself as an arts institution within our cultural context."
The COVID-19 crisis has created a global moment of uncertainty and disruption. Given these circumstances we are grateful to be able to make this appointment and view it as an opportunity to continue supporting our creative communities. While starting a new job at a gallery that is currently closed due to COVID-19 is strange, Cameron has begun from home with a focus on researching and developing writing and publication projects. We are very much looking forward to continuing working together, and hope to be back in the space in the not too distant future and will have a more social welcome for Cameron when we can.
St Paul St would also like to acknowledge the work of Balamohan Shingade, who finished in the role on 20 March, and didn't get to have a proper farewell, yet!