Emily Karaka
YEAR OF RESIDENCY
February - April 2021
Emily Karaka of Waikato and Ngāpuhi descent (Ngai Tai, Ngāti Hine, Ngātiwai, Te Kawerau a Maki, Ngāti Te Ahiwaru, Tamaoho, Waiohua) has lived in and around the central Auckland area all her life. Megan Tamati-Quennell describes Emily as “an abstract expressionist painter, her work is characterised by its expressive intensity, her use of high-key colour, text, and her gritty address of political issues related to Maori land rights, environmental issues, equity, tino rangatiratanga (Maori sovereignty) and the Treaty of Waitangi. For over five decades Emily has undertaken explorations of Maori marginalisation and dispossession through her painting.” Emily has recently made work for Nirin, Sydney’s 22nd Biennale, and ‘Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art’ at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.
