ANDY LELEISI’UAO – Mo lo’u Tina – 7-31 Oct 2025

Andy Leleisi’uao draws on sources like comic books, record covers, plastic action figures, tools and puzzles, bringing them into play on the drawing board of his imagination. Recurring motifs provide visual touchstones for viewers and remind us of the inherent humanity of his creatures, and the universality of their struggle and endeavour within a limited existence. He says we all have different skin tones but the same shadow.

This is the sixth exhibition by Andy Leleisi’uao at PG gallery192 since 2015. Each show has been pictorially distinct yet abiding themes persist, such as social connectedness (or disconnectedness) and inner quandary. Often he imagines a parallel world – perhaps in the Pacific, or somewhere off this planet – in which utopian communities thrive.

Stripes and dots of white paint decorate dark bodies in Mo lo’u Tina, individualising and activating the beings. Some heads contain puzzle pieces, thought circles reveal consciousness, billiard-ball eyes seek answers. Perhaps Leleisi’uao is contrasting how things appear outwardly versus the complexities that lie beneath the surface. The five larger paintings are built in blocks or compartments. Each compartment has its own colour and internal integrity – it tells its own story – yet they join together to complete the composition. It seems he is commenting on the coexistence of personal realities within a shared, greater existence. Does he see himself in some or all of the figures, or are they fictional? Or is he painting us? He says he imagines walking through the scenes, quietly observing.

He dedicates this exhibition to his mother who passed away in July and whose presence is very much still with him.

 

ANDY LELEISI’UAO is one of the most significant Pacific artists working in New Zealand today. He was awarded a scholarship to attend AUT and received a Master of Fine Arts with honours in 2002. He has exhibited throughout New Zealand and has been involved in solo and group exhibitions in Australia, Rarotonga, Germany, Taiwan, and the USA. Leleisi’uao was awarded residencies at the Casula Powerhouse in Sydney and the MacMillian Brown Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of Canterbury in the late 1990s. In 2009 he received the Asia NZ Foundation/Taipei Artist Village residency, and the McCahon House residency in Titirangi, 2010. Leleisi’uao was the paramount winner of the 2017 Wallace Art Award receiving a 6 month residency in New York.

In 2021, Andy Leleisi’uao was presented the Senior Pacific Artist award from Creative New Zealand. His work is included in the permanent collections of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, Pataka Museum and Art Gallery, Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, the Chartwell Collection, the Wallace Arts Trust collection, Casula Powerhouse, Sydney and the Museum of Ethnography, Frankfurt, Germany.