MAORI MARKet Will Showcase World Class Artwork

MAORI MARKet Will Showcase World Class Artwork

Maori artwork is rapidly becoming a “hot” new industry and export earner for New Zealand, with international promotion and marketing being led by the artists themselves.

MAORI MARKet will be the largest assembly of contemporary Maori art from over 100 leading and emerging artists when it opens the doors for the first time at Wellington’s TSB Event Centre on Queens Wharf from April 27 to 29

It will feature paintings, weaving, sculpture, wood, silver, bone, gold, and greenstone carving, clay, Ta Moko or traditional tattoo with items ranging in price from $500 to $80,000. It is being staged by Toi Maori, a charitable trust established by artists in 1996 for the promotion of contemporary Maori arts.

MAORI MARKet will also feature a fashion parade of contemporary woven fibre and feather shoulder garments, Maori Tourism ventures, Maori food and wine, dealer galleries, Maori art school graduate work, and live displays of Ta Moko, clay artists and contemporary jewellers. It is supported by Te Puni Kokiri and the Wellington City Council and Pataka Museum.

Toi Maori general manager Garry Nicholas said two significant exhibitions of Maori art at Spirit Wrestler Gallery in Vancouver in 2003 and last year confirmed the growing market for Maori arts in North America. Sales for the Kiwa exhibition were just over $500,000 and at last year’s Manawa exhibition they cleared $1 million

Eleven North American art collectors had already booked for MAORI MARKet and more are expected.

“MAORI MARKet is about raising the mark. We know the work is equal to the best in the world, but we must showcase it in this type of forum and then promote the event as a ‘must see’ phenomenon that will draw national and international critics and collectors to Wellington,” Mr Nicholas said.

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