Fatu Feu’u

4/92 Wallis Street, Raglan, Waikato 3225

022 475 1141

Working since the 1980s across media including painting, sculpture, printmaking, and stained and etched glass, Fatu Feu’u’s bold and inimitable style has been anchored in recurring motifs and compositional structures but also fa’a Samoa – ‘the Samoan way’ – and the many socio-cultural conventions and ideals it holds in balance.

Fatu Feu’u has exhibited in numerous exhibitions in New Zealand and internationally with works in national and private collections worldwide. He has exhibited in solo and major group exhibitions including Samoa Contemporary (2008) at Pataka Art + Museum in Porirua.

Feu’u’s work was included in two groundbreaking exhibitions of contemporary Pacific art: Te Moemoea no Iotefa, curated by Rangihiroa Panaho for the Sarjeant Art Gallery in 1990, and Bottled Ocean curated by Jim Viviaeare, which toured New Zealand in 1994-1995.

Fatu was part of the major group exhibition Le Folauga: the past coming forward – Contemporary Pacific Art from Aotearoa New Zealand, at the Auckland Museum which later toured to Taiwan.

Feu’u works across a range of mediums including painting, bronze, wood and stone sculpture, pottery design, lithographs, woodcuts and glass works.

His work is inspired by Polynesian art forms such as siapo (tapa cloth), tatau (tattoo), weaving, carving and ceremonial mask making. In these forms he uses a rich lexicon of motifs and compositional structures.

His works frequently blend traditional and contemporary elements, incorporating a range of influences, inspirations, techniques and motifs from Samoa and Aotearoa and more generally from Euro-American to Pacific cultures.

Feu’u’s work is included in a number of prestigious national and international collections including the National Gallery, Brisbane; Auckland Art Gallery; Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, Wellington; and Waikato Museum of Art and History, Hamilton.

His work is also included in an extensive number of private collections in New Zealand, Australia, United States of America, England, Holland, American Samoa, Samoa and Japan.

Fatu Feu’u was appointed a Honorary Officer of New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2001 New Years Honours List.

Papali’i Fatu Feu’u was one of the 2022 recipients of The Arts Foundation Icon Award, Whakamana Hiranga, a title given to a living circle of just 20 creatives at one time, for their extraordinary lifetime achievements and mark on the arts. The recognition delighted Papali’i Fatu Feu’u, who has been pivotal in shaping the interest in contemporary Pacific art globally and nurturing a generation of Pacific artists locally. He saw it as a long-standing dream, finally recognised.