PROFILE

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Sheyne received a Bachelor of Visual Arts from AUT in 1995 and his Masters of Fine Arts (honours) in 2000 from The University of Auckland. Since graduating, Sheyne has received a number of awards, residencies and commissions. His works are held in many public collections in Christchurch, Auckland, Washington DC, Michigan and Bethlehem. Sheyne also notably founded and directed LeSa Gallery in Petone from 2007 and 2012, an important dealer gallery for Pacific artists. Based in Wellington, Sheyne is a multi-media visual artist whose primary mediums are painting, animation and printmaking.

Perhaps best known for the dynamic style of his prints and woodcuts, Sheyne describes himself as a paper architect who uses his work to create and represent his own cultural context and sense of belonging. His prints and paintings often envisage Polynesia as a futuristic urban utopia. In these re-imaginings, the Samoan fale acts as the symbolic archetype for skyscrapers and apartment housing while the vaka stands in for rocket ships. These works reflect Sheyne’s research into his Samoan heritage and symbolism, his travel wanderlust and his taste for big overseas cities. They also reveal ongoing influences, such as the world of fantasy, comics, and cartoons, which add a sense of immediacy and humour to his subject matter.

While a substantial amount of his own energy has gone into researching and conceiving the contemporary significance of the fale and the vaka, Sheyne now adds ornithology (birdlife) to his inquiry and visual lexicon. Sheyne became aware of Manukau’s bird population and local bird lore while living there in 2005. The following year, Sheyne was awarded an artist residency at the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, Christchurch, where he spent time looking at the ancient birds of New Zealand and Samoa.

The works in his 2006 solo exhibition Misplaced Effigies featured giant palaeo-penguins and the mythical moa roaming alongside classic car models.  In addition to his fascination with New Zealand’s geological history as a natural sanctuary for a vast array of bird species, Sheyne also draws on his own associations to Samoa. Looking for manumea is a series of woodblock relief prints that focussed on manumea, a large tooth-billed pigeon found only in Samoa.

Sheyne’s recent subject matter explores popular science for a spiritual narrative. In 2019 Sheyne was artist in residence at the Carter Observatory where he a made a body of work responding to the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing , highlighting how science and engineering had brought the world together (for a brief moment) when at a time it was falling apart though war and corruption.

Through his research into astronomy, he had an epiphany about our place in the Cosmos. It made him more aware of the fragility of the earths atmosphere and the need to educate children more earlier about science.

Sheyne’s solo exhibitions include Ghost in the Machine, City Gallery Wellington, 2013; USO and the Dragon Slayer, Solander Gallery, Wellington, 2013; The Ancient Mariners, Papakura Art Gallery, Papakura, Auckland, 2011. Select group exhibitions include Freak of nature, Switchback Gallery, Monash University, Victoria, 2011; Out of the Box, Tweed River Art Gallery, Murwillumbah, New South Wales, 2011; Pasifika Styles, Camdridge University Museum, U.K, 2006; and Re-Interpreting the Middle East, and exhibition that toured Palestine, Jordan, Indianapolis, Washington DC, Boise State and Michigan, 2005-2006.

(intro gathered from tautai website)

Academic History

2000         M.F.A (hons) Elam School of Fine Art, University of Auckland,
1995         B.V.A Auckland University of Technology, Auckland,  

Solo Exhibition History

2011         The Ancent Mariners, Papkura Art Gallery, Papakura, Auckland
2010         The Garden of Earthly Delights, Waiheke Art gallery, Auckland.
2008         Sonar Interferance, Salamander Gallery, Christchurch

2006         Misplaced Effigies, Flagstaff Gallery, Devonport
                 Marziart Internationale Galerie. Hamburg, Germany
                 Penguins and Buicks, Salamander Gallery, Christchurch
2005         The Gondwana Waka, Lane Gallery,Auckland
2005         The Gondwana Waka, Catchment Gallery, Nelson,
2003         Sifi Taavale Fale, Lane Gallery, Auckland,
2002         Salamander Gallery, Christchurch,
2001         Car Paopao. The Lane Gallery, Auckland,
2000         Expressway to Taou, St Agathas Gallery, Mt Eden
1999         Solo99, Camera Lucida Gallery, Oaxaca, Mexico
                 Porto-Indo, The Ilsington Gallery, London, United Kingdom
1998         Atlantic/Pacific, The Ericeira Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal
1997         Monument to Motion, Archill Gallery, Auckland,
1996         Cacophony, The Lane Gallery, Auckland,

Selected Group Exhibitions

2020        Whenua Ūkaipō Connectedness Exhibition, Wellington
2016        Ink masters Exhibition , Cairns, Australia
2015        Line Out, Northern Print Studio, Newcastle, U.K
                Wansolwara, Franklin Arts Centre, Pukekoe
2014        BINDING & LOOPING :  University of Hawai'i, Manoa
2011        Freak of nature, Switchback Gallery, Monash University,  Victoria                          Out of the Box, Tweed River Art Gallery, Murwillumbah, N.S.W
2009        Another New Zealand, Another United States, COCA, Christchurch
2006        Pasifika Styles, Camdridge University Museum, U.K
                Re-Interpreting the Middle East , Khalil Sakikini Center, Ramallah,       
                Re-Interpreting the Middle East , Christel DeHaan Fine Art                                    Center, University of Indianapolis
                Re-Interpreting the Middle East ,Bethlehem International Center,                          Palestine
                Mainly Contemporary, Williams Gallery, Wellington
                Re-Interpreting the Middle EastThe Paltel Virtual Gallery at Birzeit                        University, Palestine
2005        Homelands, Cybertribe online Exhibition, Newcastle, Australia
                Lima-Pacific Arts, (5th Pacific Festival of CHCH), Christchurch
                Face Value: Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney, Australia
                Face Value, Museum of Brisbane, Australia
                Re-Interpreting the Middle East, 2005 SGC Conference, Washington 
                Re-Interpreting the Middle East, Orfali Art Gallery, Amman, Jordan
                Re-Interpreting - Sisson Gallery, Dearborn, Michigan
                Re-interpreting - Gallery 2, Hemingway Center, Boise State University,
2004        Printmakers, Catchment Gallery, Nelson,
                Wallace Award Finalist Exhibition, Wallace gallery, Auckland
                Sumei National Print Exhibit, Newark, N.J, U.S.A
2003        Sydney Art on Paper Fair 2003, Sydney, Australia
                20/20, City Art Gallery, Christchurch,
2002        Start Up, Te Papa Museum, Wellington,
                Pacifika Ways of Knowing Conference, Columbia University, New York
1999        Brothers, Gallery 482, Brisbane, Australia
1996        Bottled Ocean, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland

 
Achievements, Residencies and Awards

Collections

Corcoran School of Art, Washington, DC
Henry Ford Community College, Dearborn, Michigan
The International Center of Bethlehem, Bethlehem
Manunkau City Council, Auckland
Macmillan Brown collection, Christchurch
Wallace Arts Trust Collection, Auckland
Lincoln University Library , Canterbury 

Wellington City Council, Wellington

Publications


Pasifika Styles: Artists Inside the Museum -Raymond, Rosanna and Salmond, Amiria, 2008

The Frangipani is Dead: Contemporary Pacific Art in New Zealand-  Dr Karen Stevenson, 2008

Taeao tou i mea sina : the first Pacific Festival Contemporary Arts Exhibition,  1996

 

Articles/ Links

Stuff Article /Dominion Post 2022

Stuff Article/ Dominion post  2022

Wairarapa Times 2020

Australian Print Council 2020

Wellington City Council 2020

Enviroschools 2017

Dominion post 2013

Wellington City Gallery 2013

Eastern Courier  2009

Art Monthly Australia 2008

New Zealand Herald   2006

New Zealand Herald   2002

New Zealand Herald   2002