Ioane Ioane

Ioane Ioane's multidisciplinary practice acknowledges the spiritual and transitional nature of va (‘space between’ in Samoan). Ioane completed a Bachelor of Fine Art from Elam School of Fine Art, University of Auckland in 1985. In 1996 Ioane, was the finalist for the Saatchi and Saatchi Art Awards and in 2005 he was awarded the Creative New Zealand Prize for Innovation and Excellence Art Award. As well as receiving a number of public commissions, his work belongs in several private and public collections including the Cambridge Museum of Anthropology, England, Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland and Tijibou Cultural Centre, Noumea.

Based in Auckland, Ioane's multidisciplinary practice involves sculpture, painting, installation, and ritual performance and often acknowledges the spiritual and transitional nature of space (the va) as a place of transformation to birth and becoming. Ioane has commented, "Sacred spaces are not necessarily a church, but it's a place where one likes to be in, a place of affirmation.”