Once considered hopelessly far from the Eurocentric metropole, contemporary New Zealand and Australian art has become part of the global cultural scene. Among New Zealand artists are numbered both Maori, whose Eastern Polynesian ancestors settled the country around 1000 AD, and Pakeha, whose ancestors were nineteenth-century British settlers. The art of Australia draws on a similar range of cultural diversity, including both Aboriginal artists, the descendants of the first people, and later colonial arrivants.

The contemporary styles of some New Zealand and Australian artists are vividly subjective, while others deal with cutting-edge issues and themes. These artists may look at suburban cultural icons, eroticism, violence, class, race and gender issues, often with irony and humor. Of particular note is the manner in which some indigenous artists transform cultural experiences into contemporary visual language. A recent Venice Biennial included contemporary works by both New Zealand Maori and Australian Aboriginal artists.

—Dee Shapiro

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RELATED BOOKS
Chanin,Eileen, Contemporary Australian Painting. Gordon & Breach, 1991.

Drury, Nevill, Images in Contemporary Australian Painting. Rizzoli International, 1992.

Drury, Nevill, Images 3: Contemporary Australian Painting. Gordon & Breach Publishing Group, 1998.

Dunn, Michael. Contemporary Painting in New Zealand. Gordon & Breach,1996. (Includes work by Seraphine Pick and Bill Hammond).

Moffatt,Tracey, Laudanum, ed. Brigitte Reinhardt. Hatje Cantz, 2000. Hardcover, 80 pages (65 color), $24.95.

Starzecka, D.C., Maori: art and culture. Art Media Resources, 1996. Paper, 166 pages, 70 color and 54 black and white illustrations, $34.50. Out of print.


RELATED WEB SITES
Maori Art

New Zealand Art Links Directory

"Bill Hammond Paints New Zealand," ArtAsiaPacific

Leo Edelstein interviews Howard Arkley, Journal of Contemporary Art

Tracey Moffatt Exhibition, UCR California Museum of Photography

Books by Tracey Moffatt

Tracey Moffatt: Career Survey, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska