Bio

Salome Tanuvasa is a Tāmaki Makaurau-based artist who graduated with an MFA from the Elam School of Fine Arts in 2014. In 2018 she was selected for the YAF Creative Award at the China Academy of Art, Huangzhou. She describes her drawings and artwork as being ‘as true as they can be’. Her paintings blur the line between the mark marking and gesture of drawing and the fluid dynamics of painting, with the accent on direct and simplified applications of pigment. The blips, curves and squiggles of Untitled (2020) in Te Haerenga Collection is a classic example of her less-is-more approach to image making: black lines on a raw canvas. Te Haerenga Collection curator Hamish Coney sees a conundrum in Tanuvasa’s work. ‘A few simple marks, complete economy of palette, in this case a few spare black lines – all the hallmarks of minimalism, a visual language that is foundational in the history of abstraction. However, this is a point of reference I never think of in the context of Tanuvasa’s mahi toi. They are lush, bounding with an energetic life-force, and playful. Their conceptual base has more kinship to tapa motifs and tivaevae patterns than to the restraint of minimalist abstraction.‘

Tanuvasa locates inspiration from within her Pacific heritage and European modernist icons such as Henri Matisse. For her 2024 solo exhibition at Tim Melville titled Joyous, she recounted her relationship to the French artist: ‘I’ve been looking at his colours and shapes and how he would paint fabrics and textiles … I’ve used stencils and cut-outs [as Matisse did] to make these new works too. My paintings communicate an intuitive sense of the places where I find joy – in my home and with my family.

Exhibitions

• 2024   Northart, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland: Abstraxt Abstraxt
• 2024   Tim Melville, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland: Joyous
• 2024   Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga Hastings Art Gallery: To Be at Home
• 2023   Murray Art Museum, Albury, NSW: Home
• 2023   Fresh Gallery, Ōtara, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland: Here Together
• 2021   Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, Ngāmotu New Plymouth: Stars start falling
• 2021   Gus Fisher Gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland: From Our Beautiful Square
• 2019   Tim Melville, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland: Mirrored Systems