Lisa Reihana

Lisa Reihana is a Maori artist who has played a leading role in the development of film and multimedia art in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Her work demonstrates a keen interest to communicate complex ideas about indigenous identity and bi-cultural living. Reihana’s desire to address and engage with contemporary experience through diverse media is expressed in installations that are collages drawn from eclectic sources. Her examination of cultural histories utilises photography, sculpture and time-based arts.

Reihana has an impressive exhibition record, dating back to 1988. She represented New Zealand in Paradise Now? at the Asia Society Museum, New York, the 2000 Sydney Biennale, the Noumea Biennale in 2002, and the Asia Pacific Triennial in 1996 and 2003. The significant work Native Portraits n.19897 was commissioned for the opening of Te Papa Tongarewa Wellington NZ, and has received much critical acclaim. Reihana has undertaken residencies at the Institute for Modern Art in Brisbane and at The Banff Centre in Canada. She was Digital Artist in Residence at Waikato University, New Zealand in 2006.