Bio

Raukura Tūrei (Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, Tainui, Ngā Rauru Kītahi) is a multi-disciplinary artist, architect and designer based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. She received her Master of Architecture (Professional) from the University of Auckland in 2011.

Her works span the artistic lineage of abstraction, and her personal whakapapa and connection to the whenua and moana of Te Tai-o-Rehua (the Tasman Sea) and Tīkapa moana (the Hauraki Gulf) via the deployment of raw materials including aumoana (blue clay), onepū (black sand) and kerewhenua (yellow ochre).

Her recent touring exhibition Takoto ai te marino takes its name from the Hauraki iwi whakataukī, ‘Takato ai te marino, horahia i waho rā’ – ‘The sea is calm, stretching far into the distance’, a reference to the interface between land and sea and the locations from which Tūrei collected the clay and sands for her works.

Tūrei’s large-scale work Te Poho o Hinemoana was acquired by the Chartwell Collection in 2022, and is at the time of writing on display at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki in the exhibition Taimoana | Coastlines: Art in Aotearoa

The work in Te Haerenga Collection, He Tukuna I (2020), could be described as the teina, or little sibling, to the monumental six-part frieze Te Poho o Hinemoana.

Tūrei’s relationship with natural materials saw her in 2024 named as a finalist in the Portage Ceramic Awards. Her entries saw her utilising clay from the west coast region of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, where she has long-standing iwi and whānau connections. In describing her work and process, she states, ‘the whenua has a mana of its own.’

In a recent radio interview, Tūrei expanded on this theme: ‘The black sand, that beautiful black-blue, is in honour of my kuia. I never got to meet her in person.

Exhibitions

• 2024   Season, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland: Takato ai te marino: Te hokinga mai
• 2024   Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki: Taimoana | Coastlines: Art in Aotearoa
• 2023   The Dowse Art Museum, Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai Lower Hutt: Takato ai te marino
• 2021   Centre of Contemporary Art Toi Moroki (CoCA)m Ōtautahi Christchurch: Mark Work
• 2018   Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery: The earth looks upon us / Ko Papatūānuku te matua o te tangata