Cutting-edge works with a strong sense of identity will be the focus of the upcoming exhibition ‘Don’t Pacify Me’ at St Paul St Gallery (School of Art & Design, AUT) in Auckland city.

Presented by Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust, the exhibition brings together an impressive roll call of eighteen senior Pacific students from five Auckland art schools.

Curator Charmaine ‘Ilaiu, a young Tongan graduate architect, has selected work by art students from Auckland University of Technology (AUT), Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT), Unitec, the University of Auckland and Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design.

Curating the show has turned out to be a unique opportunity for Charmaine to explore the current condition and direction of contemporary Pacific art.

Explored through painting, photography, moving image, sculpture, design and installation, ‘Don’t Pacify Me’ presents “a wider palette than what is currently understood thematically and to some extent, aesthetically, as Pacific art,” explains Charmaine.

“Their loaded messages implore us not to make assumptions but first give them space to demarcate an artistic existence that is then to be reckoned with”, says Charmaine. 

For AUT’s St Paul St Gallery, one of the leading university galleries in New Zealand, Pacific art is having a growing presence in their programme and they have dedicated their Gallery One and Two spaces for the exhibition.

The exhibition also ties in with Tautai Trust’s ongoing objectives to support young artists.

“Our aim has been to provide students with an opportunity to gather together and form broader support networks with their peers. It also introduces them to the wider Tautai community and networks,” says Tautai manager, Christina Jeffery.

The ‘Don’t Pacify Me’ exhibition opens on 25 June and runs until 10 July.