Cora-Allan Lafaiki Twiss

Cora-Allan Lafaiki Twiss is a multi-disciplinary artist of Māori (Ngā Puhi, Tainui) and Niuean descent. A contemporary practitioner of the Niuean tradition of barkcloth known as hiapo, she is credited with reviving the “sleeping artform” which has not been practised in Niue for several generations.

Her hiapo works deconstruct and reconstruct the decorative elements of the traditional form – delicate botanical drawings and abstract patterns – to create a contemporary interpretation. In creating the work she draws freehand on the hiapo cloth, which she has made herself, using traditional black pigments made from plants.

In the past year, following a very productive few months as the McCahon House artist in residence, Lafaiki Twiss expanded her practice to bring in colour, employing, what she calls, whenua paints made from clays around Titirangi. She has also started painting on panel and paper in addition to the hand-made hiapo. An exhibition of landscape paintings Wickliffe also made during her time at the McCahon House was shown at Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery in the first half of 2022. The exhibition was accompanied by a monograph of full-page images and essays by art critic and author Lana Lopesi and curator Madeleine Gifford.

Lafaiki Twiss has a Masters in Visual Art and Design from AUT and although early in her career has attracted considerable attention. Her work has been written about in New Zealand’s leading art magazines and she has won several significant awards, residencies and grants. In 2021, she had artists residencies at Te Whare Hēra Massey University Wellington, and the prestigious McCahon House, which said she was chosen for the way she “weaves together and embraces history, contemporary thought and personal exploration along with form, representation and symbolic imagery”. Also in 2021 she was the recipient of an Arts Foundation Springboard Award which came with mentoring by leading New Zealand artist Shane Cotton. In 2020 she won the Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifika Award. She has exhibited in New Zealand, Australia, Niue, England, France and Canada and her work is already in a wide range of public and private collections.