We are particularly delighted to present this major body of work marking a significant new direction in his practice while a mid-career survey of earlier figurative work is showing at Tauranga Art Gallery. This new work is referenced in the Tauranga exhibition in a site-specific installation on three seven-metre high walls in the gallery atrium.

Here Taratoa is exploring how form, colour and pattern speak to and across cultures. These paintings create broad-ranging conversations which range from Te Ao Maori to Te Ao Whānui, the wider world: from customary Maori pattern, to mid-century geometric abstraction, to 21st century digital codes and the ideas that symbols and patterns embody.

The conceptual ambiguity is matched by the material ambiguity of the paintings, which have an immaculate finish belying the brush and hand of the artist. It is also a point of continuity with his older work which is characterised by super-flat, vividly-coloured surfaces.

Taratoa, who has a Master in Maori Visual Art (1st class honours) from Massey University, has exhibited nationally and internationally and has had several public gallery exhibitions throughout New Zealand. He has work in a range of collections nationally and internationally and his Tauranga survey borrows from these collections.