2021 Senior Pacific Artist Award, 2017 Paramount Winner, 26th annual Wallace Art Awards
Andy Leleisi’uao (b. 1969) is a New Zealand artist of Samoan heritage known for his modern and post-modern Pacific paintings and art.[1] He was paramount winner at the 26th annual Wallace Art Awards in 2017 and awarded a Senior Pacific Artist Award at the Arts Pasifika Awards in 2021.[2]
Leleisi’uao was born in 1969 New Zealand and grew up in Māngere, South Auckland. He has one sister, his parents were both born in Samoa and are Pepe (Lalomauga, Upolu) and Tuifa’asisina Tinou'amea (Palauli, Savai'i).[1][3][4][5] Leleisi'uao went to Māngere College and afterwards had some factory jobs.[6] He studied at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) School of Art and Design and received the first ever Pasifika Scholarship in 2000. In 2002 Leleisi’uao graduated with a Master of Fine Arts (with Honours).[4][7] He has been a full time artist since 1996.[8]
He has attended a number of arts residencies including a Research Scholarship at Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, University of Canterbury, and the McCahon House Artists’ Residency in 2010.[4][9] He spent three months in Taiwan in 2010 on an Asia New Zealand Foundation residency with the Taipei Artist Village.[10]
Leleisi'uao has been based in the Auckland suburb of Māngere for over 40 years.[3] He said about artists in an interview with Ema Tavola "For any artist to be mentally fecund, they have to be open."[3]
Some of the visual references in his work are Stone Age rock art, classical Greek vase painting, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Samoan siapa (tapa) cloth.[11] It is said in his paintings that reoccurring motifs, "remind us of the inherent humanity of his creatures, and the universality of their struggle and endeavour within a limited existence".[9] His work style has changed over the years of his practice, in the late 1990s his paintings were highly politicized dealing with subjects such as prejudice and racism, poverty and youth suicide amongst Pacific Island populations in New Zealand. Since the 2000s his work utilises 'mythology and spiritualism' with 'fantastical creatures' although still drawing upon 'social dislocation'.[10][12][6]
Leleisi'uao had quite a few exhibitions in New York City. In 2009, Leleisi'uao had a solo exhibition Asefeka of the Unmalosa in Kips Gallery, Chelsea, New York. he returned to New York City in 2010 with the BCA group show MANUIA, co-curated by Mahiriki Tangaroa and Ben Bergman, exhibiting with artists Mike Tavioni, Michel Tuffery, Sylvia Marsters, Kay George, Jerome Shedden, and Mahikiri Tangaroa. In 2011, Leleisi'uao had a solo exhibition The Ufological City of New York with BCA Gallery (now Bergman Gallery) at VOLTA New York.[13][14] In 2021, Leleisi'uao and Bergman Gallery participated in Tokyo International Art Fair, Japan[15]
His 2006 exhibition Empowered Wallflower - Whitespace, Ponsonby was about a new generations relationship to Fa'a Samoa and how domestic aspects such as using a traditional salu broom are important.[16]
In 2017 he won the Wallace Art Awards including a six-month residency in New York the 'International Studio and Curatorial Programme'.[12]
^Leleisi'uao, Andy (2004). My Samoan accent: An investigation discussing issues that emanate out of my identity as a New Zealand born Samoan artist (Masters thesis). Tuwhera Open Access, Auckland University of Technology. hdl:10292/11195.
