Developing an Emerging Practice

As part of curator and writer Māia Abraham's week-long residency at Enjoy, we invite artists, curators, writers and others to join us for an open-ended kōrero exploring “professional development.”

Questions that will inform this include: what models and frameworks currently exist for emerging artists, writers, curators and others? What are our experiences of these models, who are they working for and who aren’t they working for? What could the future look like?

About Māia's residency
Whakawhanaungatanga: meaning to establish relationships or to find connection with one another through experiences.

From 16-19 October, curator and artist Māia Abraham will undertake a residency at Enjoy that departs from a broad set of questions surrounding whakawhanaungatanga and creative practices, asking: How is whakawhanaungatanga important? What do these relational practices look like? How does whakawhanaungatanga relate to the development of creative practice?

About Māia Abraham
Māia Abraham (Ngāi te Rangi, Ngāi Tūhoe) is a curator and artist currently living in Ōtautahi. In 2017, Māia completed his BFA in Sculpture at Ilam School of Fine Arts. Within his practice he uses art and curating as a way of exploring kaupapa Māori ways of thinking and working; asking how does manaakitanga exist in the arts? Or perhaps why is whanaungatanga important to the artistic process?

Māia is one of 3 kaiwhakahaere of Ōtautahi Kōrerotia, a collective producing events and exhibitions for and by local artists based in Ōtautahi, since 2017. He was the Toi Māori and Creative New Zealand Māori Art Intern at Blue Oyster Art Project Space for 2018, co-curating the exhibition Wā o mua, September 2018.

Curatorial projects include: Whitu, Masterworks Gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau, June 2019, UKU//UTU, Blue Oyster Art Project Space, Ōtepoti, July–August 2019. Māia was also a participant in the Independent Curators International Curatorial Intensive in Tāmaki Mākaurau at Artspace Aotearoa in August.

Image: Pūtahi; tributaries feeding tributaries at Ōtautahi Kōrerotia, Avon Loop Community Cottage, 2017.