EXHIBITIONS

Latest Exhibition

Borne and Bred

Linda Va’aelua

9 May - 5 Jul, 2025

Join us for the opening event on Fri 9 May | 6–8pm 

Summary

Borne and Bred delves into Linda Va’aelua’s experience as being a first generation New Zealand born Samoan raised in Tāmaki Makaurau. Her work reflects the complex negotiation between belonging to Aotearoa and maintaining ties to her Samoan heritage. Va’aelua’s concerns centre on that of many migrant communities, where parents and grandparents worked tirelessly in low-income, labour-intensive jobs, seeking a “better life” and education for their children. Through the reinterpretation of traditional Samoan motifs using repurposed, and found materials present in Aotearoa, she challenges notions of value, identity, and cultural legacy, while celebrating the resilience and labour of Pasifika communities in New Zealand.

As a Samoan born in New Zealand my way of seeing is a little different to that of my family who have grown up in Samoa; it isn’t greater, and it isn’t less than. I’m a proud New Zealand Samoan, Borne and Bred.

Past Exhibitions

  • Selau Pasege

    George Funaki, Jasmine Tuiā, Jimmy Ma’ia’i

    14 Feb - 5 Apr 2025

  • A Seat at the Table

    Teuila Fatupaito, Latamai Katoa, Sisi Panikoula, Brett Taefu, and Daedae Tekoronga-Waka.

    Dec 5 – Dec 20 2024

  • Solesolevaki

    Solesolevaki, initiated by artist-curator Vasemaca Tavola, explores the concept of solesolevaki as a tool to enable connection and intergenerational cultural transmission, across four generations of one family. Featuring works by Lanuola Mereia Aniseko, Ella Carling, Tiana Carling, Mereia Carling, Mereia Sauvukivuki, Helen Tavola, Kaliopate Tavola and Vasemaca Tavola. Exhibition design by Christian Carling.

  • When it Feels Over

    Christopher Ulutupu

    TAUTAI Pacific Arts Trust, in collaboration with CIRCUIT Artist Moving Image, is pleased to present Leave room for Jesus... (2023) and The Pleasures of Unbelonging (2023) moving image work by Christopher Ulutupu.

  • Grasping the Horizon

    Cora-Allan Lafaiki Twiss

    In this exhibition Cora-Allan Lafaiki Twiss’ connection to the black lines of her ancestors are opened wider with a range of new patterns and new hiapo compositions.

  • Good Hair Day

    Good Hair Day curated by Luisa Tora explores urban narratives around hair. Featuring artists Bali Buliruarua, Māia Piata Rose Week, Nââwié Tutugoro, Karlin Morrison Raju and Peter Seeto Wing. 

  • Titiro ki muri, kia whakatika ā mua | Look to the past to proceed to the future

    Coinciding with the Hōteke (winter) holidays, this programme has been organised by Hana Pera Aoake and Tautai Pacific Arts Trust.

  • Queen Fiapoto: switch, code, reverse

    Queen Fiapoto: switch, code, reverse is an exercise of agency by 5 young Samoan women. The multidisciplinary project is presented by the sugaz of Malae/Co.

  • The Last Kai

    The Last Kai exhibition cleverly uses familiar religious iconography from within Pacific homes to bring up current discussions around women’s representation and the role of Christianity in the modern Pacific household.

  • 683 Baby xo

    683 Baby xo examines the complexities of being New Zealand-born Niueans, craving that connection to their Niuean heritage while acknowledging their perspective as diaspora youth. Featuring work by Dahlina Taueu, Quentin Tauetau-Tohitau and Kordell Cameron.

  • https://www.tautai.org/taputapu-atea

    Taputapu Ātea

    Taputapu Ātea is an installation of new paintings and digital works that explore the artificially intelligent future of our culture’s materialisation.

  • Installation view of 'Haus of Memories' by Studio Kiin

    Haus of Memories

    Haus of Memories is a multidisciplinary residency project led by Studio Kiin that explores and gathers fragments of how we archive and draw upon memory to honour our future past.

  • Installation view of 'lean into the pain' by Anonymouz

    lean into the pain: archive of a tatau thesis

    Award-winning producer and sound artist Anonymouz presents a deeply personal multimedia exhibition that explores his thesis on the Indigenous practice of tatau being an analogue metaphor, philosophy and framework for lived experience.

  • The Water Tastes Different Here

    In*ter*is*land Collective, a misfit collection of queer, moana artists and activists based in London, UK and in Aoteraoa New Zealand, present their first exhibition in Aotearoa at Tautai Gallery.

  • Toitū Te Moana

    Hawaiki, the ancestral homeland, is the beginning point for Toitū Te Moana, and the place from which the artists’ mātauranga, their knowledge, descends.

  • Oh My Ocean

    Curated by Nigel Borrell, this exhibition includes work by Rawiri Brown, Fa’amele Etuale, Ioane Ioane, Elisabeth Kumaran, Sani Muliaumaseali’i, Michel Mulipola, Iata Peautolu, Keva Rands and Chris Van Doren.

  • Moana Waiwai Moana Pāti

    Moana Waiwai Moana Pāti celebrates the diversity of Pacific creatives, and includes film, digital image-making, painting, tatau, poetic prose, sonic landscapes and performance.

  • Voyagers: The Niu World

    Voyagers: The Niu World

    Combining pieces created during Aotearoa’s lockdown and new work, this exhibition aims to tap into the spirit of the great explorers of the Pacific, consulting the stars and charting a course into the wild blue expanse.

  • Saltwater / INTERCONNECTIVITY

    Tautai Gallery is transformed to embody the Moana / Solwara worldview

  • Moana Wall

    The 70m hoardings were transformed into the MOANA WALL using the existing infrastructure as a canvas that highlights contemporary Pasifika artists and celebrates the diverse community of Karangahape Road.

  • Moana Legacy

    Tautai’s first exhibition in its new gallery space, the show was developed from an existing partnership with Blak Dot Gallery, Naarm (Melbourne) featuring Tagata Moana artists working in both Aotearoa and Australia.