Dalosa, Lafo & Iva: Showcasing three early career Samoan artists at The Physics Room
Image: Dalosa, Lafo & Iva, graphic designed by Lolani Dalosa, 2025
28 Mar–18 May
The Physics Room | Christchurch
301 Montreal Street
The Arts Centre Registry Additions Building
(access from The Arts Centre Market Square)
Dalosa, Lafo & Iva is a group exhibition curated by James Tapsell-Kururangi. The exhibition presents newly commissioned artwork, through the mediums of photography, sculpture and installation. Dalosa, Lafo & Iva prioritises the relationships we hold, with ourselves, each other, past images, an index of names, and a whakataukī.
The exhibition features new commissions by each of the artists, Lolani Dalosa, Ma'alo Lafo and Axel Iva. The conversation began in 2024 between curator James Tapsell-Kururangi and Edith Amituanai while working together on the artist development programme Papatūnga at Te Tuhi in Tāmaki Makaurau. At the time, Amituanai was working with artist Ma’alo Lafo as his mentor for an external mentoring programme at Moana Fresh. This exhibition brings the three artists together with the intention of continuing to create pathways for early-career Pasifika artists. Amituanai is the tuakana for the exhibition. The reciprocal model of tuakana-teina scaffolds learning, and the relationship is equally important when working together as Māori and Pasifika.
The exhibition was co-commissioned by Te Tuhi and The Physics Room, with the support of Canterbury Museum and The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora.