Kereama Taepa 

Kereama Taepa studied for his Bachelor of Māori Visual Arts at Massey University in Palmerston North and continued on to gain his Master’s degree.

Taepa’s involvement in the arts has been broad and varied including bronze technicians at the Dibble Arts Foundry and participating in various national Māori arts symposiums, workshops and hui. national Māori arts symposiums, workshops and hui.

Taepa taught art within the Te Whare Wānanga O Awanuiārangi Art and Visual Culture Degree for four years and currently teaches within Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology’s Bachelor of Creative Industries Degree in the Bay of Plenty.

He has exhibited his art nationally and internationally, and has works in collections across New Zealand and abroad. He has recently unveiled ‘Tohorā’ on the Kāpiti Coast, 2020 as well as ‘Pōhutukawa’ on the Tauranga Waterfront, 2018.

Other major public works include the ‘a (very) brief history of Aotearoa’s sculptures for the Four Plinths Sculpture Project in Wellington, 2016 and a public sculpture titled ‘tichi’ in New Plymouth, 2015. He is a Supreme Award winner of the Rotorua Art Awards 2017, the Molly Morpeth 2D Art Award in 2008 and recently received the Runner Up Award at the National Art Awards 2018.

Work is primarily based on ideas of exploration and finding new ways of expressing Te Ao Māori, whilst staying true to the mahi of our tūpuna. Technology at this, and recent times has seen an explosion of innovation and the creation of new environments for us to explore, as well as new methods in which to create. Whakapī (3D printing) is a new(ish) technology that can be used to create our mahi – providing us with a plethora of new materials and opening up opportunities of expression that is/are unachievable by hand.

Education

Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology, Certificate in Tertiary Teaching

Massey University, Masters of Maori Visual Arts

Massey University, Bachelor of Maori Visual Arts – Hons