Parekowhai was born in Porirua. Both his parents were schoolteachers. He spent his childhood in Auckland's North Shore suburbs, where he also attended school. After leaving high school, Parekowhai worked as a florist's assistant before commencing his BFA at University of Auckland's Elam School of Fine Arts (1987–1990). He trained as a high-school art teacher before returning to Elam to complete his MFA (1998–2000).
Parekowhai makes a variety of work across a range of media that intersects sculpture and photography. Sally Blundell, writing in the New Zealand Listener, says: "Originality, authenticity, ownership. In Parekowhai’s work, such notions blur, slipping into a collective act of translation that interweaves the canon of "high art" with cultural tradition, the handmade object with mass-produced tourist tat, the imported with the proudly colloquial."
Despite the range of Parekowhai's output, his practice is linked throughout, both stylistically—a characteristic 'gloss' of high production value—and thematically.
Curator Justin Paton writes that Parekowhai's works "have a way of sneaking up on you, even when they're straight ahead." He continues: "Pick-up sticks swollen to the size of spears. A photograph of a stuffed rabbit who has you in his sights. A silky bouquet that rustles with politics. Seemingly serene beneath their gleaming, factory-finished surfaces, Michael Parekowhai's sculptures and photographs are in fact supremely artful objects. 'Artful' not just because they're beautifully made...but also because they manage, with a combination of slyness, charm and audacity, to spring ambushes that leave you richer.
On First Looking into Chapman's Homer – an installation of two bronze bulls on grand pianos, two bronze olive saplings and the figure of a stoic security guard, his entry in 54th La Biennale di Venezia in 2011. Part of this installation, titled Chapman's Homer and consisting of a single bull atop a piano, was acquired by the Christchurch Art Gallery.
The World Turns – a life-sized bronze elephant tipped on its head and eye-to-eye with a kuril (water-rat), commissioned by the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art
He Kōrero Pūrākau mo Te Awanui o Te Motu: story of a New Zealand rive r — an original Steinway grand piano covered in glossy red carvings.[9] The piano is played at each of the exhibitions that it features in, for example in the 2012 Te Papa exhibition.
© 2020. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Michael Parekowhai. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only
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| Mr. Michael Parekowhai |
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| After Dunlop 1989 |
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| The Indefinite Article 1990 |
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| Axe II 1993 |
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| Ten Guitars, Installation view Artspace, 1999 |
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| (The world may be) Fantastic: 2002 Biennale of Sydney Installation view, 2002 |
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| Kapa Haka Installation view, 2003 |
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| Nine Lives Installation view, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, 2003 |
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| 2004 |
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| The Consolation of Philosophy: piko nei te matenga Installation view, 2004 |
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| My Sister, My Self 2006 |
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| Parliament of Fools 2006 |
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| The Horn of Africa 2006 |
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| Canaan 2009-10 |
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| He kōrero pūrākau mo te awanui o te motu: story of a New Zealand river 2011 |
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| Maori’ Steinway Venice Biennale ,2011 |
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| The Far Side (detail), 2011 |
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| Do you feel it the way I do? 2015 |
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| Over the Rainbow 2015 |
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| Over the Rainbow 2015 |
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| The Promised Land Installation view, GoMA, Brisbane, 2015 |
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| The Promised Land Installation view, GoMA, Brisbane, 2015 |
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| The Promised Land Installation view, GoMA, Brisbane, 2015 |
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| The Promised Land Installation view, GoMA, Brisbane, 2015 |
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| The Promised Land Installation view, GoMA, Brisbane, 2015 |
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| The Promised Land Installation view, GoMA, Brisbane, 2015 |
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| The Promised Land Installation view, GoMA, Brisbane, 2015 |
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| They Comfort Me III 2015 |
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| Coral 2016 |
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| Stand by me installation, 2017 |
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| Stand by me installation, 2017 |
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| Stand by me installation, 2017 |
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| The World Turns 2017 |
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| When We Dream Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, 2018 |
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