In this episode, I visit Shane Cotton in his studio in Te Tai Tokerau.
Shane is Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Rangi, Ngāti Hine and Te Uri Taniwha. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts fro the Ilam School of Fine Art at the University of Canterbury, and a Diploma in Teaching from the Christchurch Collage of Education.
He has over 60 solo shows to his name, and a similar number of group shows, with several of those being public exhibitions. There is also a very long list of collection inclusions, including, but by no means limited to, The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, The National Gallery of Australia, The Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu, The National Gallery of Victoria, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, along with being awarded several art prizes and residencies. He was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the visual arts in 2012.
Shane is represented by Gow Langsford Gallery in Tāmaki Makaurau.
There are images of the works that we talk about on The Good Oil Shane Cotton Instagram Post for your reference. Although, a heads up, this doesn't include what were works in progress you’ll hear us talking about in the studio - more on when and where you can see those at the end of the episode.
A quick correction - you’ll hear me refer to a painting of his as ‘Baseline’ - the correct title of that work is ‘Baseland’.
In the episode, you’ll hear Shane talk about what he did and didn’t understand about painting when he arrived at art school, a moment that made him realise the diversity and monumental scope of Maori history and art history that set a path for him as a painter, his natural want to constantly be moving the practice stylistically, why there is a continued investigation of mokomokai as a subject, a sustained interest in painting tiki subjects as a way to explore carving outcomes with paint, and how those tiki paintings are a kind of ongoing way to complete the absence of a lot of art work in Nga Puhi marae.
