Cora-Allan

Cora-Allan is an artist and curator who has worked in several roles within the creative industry. She is of Māori (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Tumutumu) and Niuean (Alofi, Liku) descent, living and working in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
After graduating from AUT with her Master of Visual Arts in 2014, she went onto work at the Walter Phillips Gallery in Banff, Canada then moved back to Aotearoa in 2016. From 2017-2021 she was curator at Corban Estate Arts Centre in Auckland.
Her work draws upon knowledge systems and traditional art forms from her cultural heritage. In recent years, her art practice has been focused on developing the art form of Hiapo where she has dedicated time into re-introducing hiapo to the community as a functioning and living treasure.
Her work is held in important public collections such as Te Papa Tongarewa, Te Paenga Hira Waka Auckland War Memorial Museum, New Bedford Whaling Museum, Waitangi Treaty grounds collection and Over the last five years, she has received numerous accolades. In 2025, she was the recipient of the British Council Oceania Archival Residency (Scotland, 2025). In 2021, Cora-Allan was the recipient of two artist residences including Parehuia McCahon House Trust Residency (Auckland) and Te Whare Hera Residency (CoCA, Massey University, Wellington) and an Arts Foundation Springboard Award. In 2020, she was the recipient of the Creative New Zealand Pacific Heritage Artist award (2020). These awards assisted in her decision to go into working full-time as an artist alongside raising her young family with husband Daniel Twiss (Lakota, Sioux, Rosebud Reservation).
Together, Cora-Allan and Daniel founded BC COLLECTIVE BC stands for ‘Before Cook and Before Columbus’, and was initiated as a way to share, directly engage with and exchange indigenous ideas and concepts.
Cora-Allan has been actively exhibiting since 2013. Notable exhibitions include the forthcoming solo exhibition
Recording Mauri: Moments of Light and Earth (City Gallery Wellington, 2026), Encountering Aotearoa (Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna Waiwhetū & Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 2023-24) and From Otītori Bay Rd (Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery, Auckland, 2022). She has been included in group exhibitions internationally including Wider World & Scrimshaw (New Bedford Whaling Museum, Massachusetts, 2024), Bark Rhythms (Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking, Atlanta Georgia, 2024) and Oceania Now (Royal Academy, 2022).