Since 1997, multi-media and installation artist Lonnie Hutchinson has been taunting and haunting the subconscious of dominant patriarchal audiences; bringing to light repressed narratives of Māori and Pacific Island experiences and histories.
Drawing lies at the base of Hutchinson’s practice and is manifested through a powerful repertoire of artworks made from black builders paper, a recurring material in the artist’s oeuvre that addresses a wide range of historical, social and representational constructs. Forms incorporating Māori motifs such as kōwhaiwhai and koru as well as female forms are placed within a delicate play of light and shadow. Drawing on both her Ngāi Tahu and Sāmoan ancestry, her distinctive cut-out forms have expanded into new material explorations using vintage wallpaper as well as public artworks made from steel and aluminium.
Her work is represented public and private collections across Aotearoa and abroad including Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetū, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, National Gallery of Australia and Banff Art Centre Canada amongst others. In 2000 Hutchinson was the first woman recipient of the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies residency at the University of Canterbury and was also a recipient of the first International Indigenous Art residency at the Banff Art Centre, in Alberta, Canada in 2003.
Public commissions include Aroha ki te Ora (2020) at Britomart Auckland; Pikihuia i te ao, i te pō, and Kahu Matarau (2017) at Christchurch Justice and Emergency Services Precinct; Aroha Atu, Aroha Mai (2015) Manukau City; Te Waharoa ki te ao Mārama (2013) at Hamilton Lake; Honoa ki te Hono Tawhiti (2011) at Auckland Art Gallery.
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