Contemporary HUM, a new initiative for New Zealand visual arts, launches at www.contemporaryhum.com. HUM is the first centralised platform dedicated to documenting and generating critical discussion on New Zealand visual arts and creative disciplines presented abroad.

HUM exists to fill a gap in New Zealand’s international relations, fostering an exchange of ideas between creatives, and a space for New Zealand artists and art professionals to forge new links, explore new networks, and promote their projects. HUM aims to draw attention to, and to contextualise New Zealand’s contribution to the global arts scene through a critically rigorous platform, featuring essays and reviews on the international work of New Zealand practitioners, in addition to a calendar of events and exhibitions.

HUM has been developed by two New Zealand arts professionals living in Paris. Pauline Autet and Winsome Wild launched HUM to provide greater visibility to the work of New Zealand’s artists and art professionals working overseas – both for New Zealand-based audiences too physically removed to experience it, and for international audiences, less familiar with the scope and breadth of New Zealand art practices.

From the emerging to the established, New Zealand artists are working and succeeding on the world stage. Artists such as André Hemer, Tahi Moore, Ruth Buchanan, Simon Denny and Anne Noble are making their mark internationally, and HUM launches in 2016 to engage with, support, and showcase their achievements. Throughout 2017 HUM will focus on projects based in Europe, and will later expand to cover global events.

Editor Pauline Autet said, “One of the things we are interested in exploring is what it means to be operating as both an international and a New Zealand artist, to look at how a sense of place may filter through artistic practice. New Zealand’s contribution in the global art world is one that needs more visibility and discussion, and we’re excited to be working with New Zealand’s art community to deliver the project.”

HUM launches with an essay on André Hemer’s recent paintings, a conversation between French and Italian curators Barbara Sirieix and Caterina Riva on their time in New Zealand and world events, and reviews of Anne Noble’s exhibition Abeille at the Abbaye de Noirlac in France, Future Islands, the New Zealand pavilion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, and This Model World: Travels to the Edge of Contemporary Art, Anthony Byrt’s new book about his journey into contemporary New Zealand art, and the global world it inhabits.

We invite you to visit Contemporary HUM at contemporaryhum.com and to subscribe to the mailing list to be updated on the latest news.

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