Areta Wilkinson

In 1991 Wilkinson received a Diploma in Craft Design and in 2001 she completed a Bachelor of Design from Unitec Institute of Technology, where she studied under the esteemed Pauline Bern.[2][3] In 2014 she completed a PhD in Fine Arts at Te Pūtahi-ā-Toi School of Māori Art, Knowledge and Education at Massey University in Palmerston North.[4][5]

Wilkinson has been a practising jeweller for over 20 years and her work explores customary Māori adornment while pushing the boundaries of contemporary New Zealand jewellery practices.[6]

She was a lecturer at Unitec Institute of Technology from 1995 to 2008 and a lecturer at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology from 2008 to 2009.[7] "Her work emerges from the encounter of two things: contemporary jewelry, which she would define as a critical studio craft practice which makes objects that are grounded in an awareness of the body; and Maori systems of knowledge, which place people in specific relationships to each other and to the world and which sometimes use objects to mediate these connections."[8]

During the 1990s, she found support for her practice through the Fingers Collective, a contemporary New Zealand jewellery store and exhibition space, and through cofounding a shared studio Workshop6.[9]

Wilkinson has exhibited nationally and internationally and has work in both private and public institutions including Te Runanga-o-Ngāi Tahu, the Dowse Art Museum, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and the Auckland War Memorial Museum.[10][11][12]

In 2010, Wilkinson was artist in resident at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, where her research centred on wearable taonga (treasures) held in the museum's collection.[13] On 28 February 2016, Wilkinson gave a lecture with Alan Preston at the Pinakothek die Moderne in Munich Germany.[14] In 2017 Wilkinson returned to the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology as a visiting fellow, and as Visiting Wolfson College Research Associate at University of Cambridge.[15]

• 2015 Recipient of the Creative New Zealand Craft/Object Fellowship[16]
• 2012 Guest Judge for the Objective Art Awards 2012 Auckland Council Manukau Arts Centre
• 2009 Winner of The New Dowse Gold Award
• 2006 Premier Award winner of the Oceana Gold National Jewellery Awards.[3]
• 2004 Aotearoa /NZ Maori Delegation for 9th Festival of Pacific Arts in the Republic of Palau.
• 2002 Commissioned by Ngāi Tahu to make a gift for Queen Elizabeth who visited a Ngāi Tahu marae whilst on a Royal New Zealand Tour. The result was a brooch called Aoraki Lily that was made from family heirloom white heron kotuku feathers in the shape of the native flower, a Mount Cook Lilly.[3]

• 2020 Moa-Hunter Fashions, Christchurch Art Gallery;[17] Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art, Auckland Art Gallery[18]
• 2018 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, QAGOMA
• 2017 Repatriation (with Mark Adams), The National, Christchurch [13]
• 2016 Kōrero Mai, Kōrero Atu, with Te Rongo Kirkwood, Auckland War Memorial Museum[19]
• 2015 ARCHIVES Te Wahi Pounamu (with Mark Adams), Dunedin Public Art Gallery[20]
• 2014–2015 Whakapaipai: Jewellery as Pepeha, Canterbury Museum, Christchurch; Objectspace, Auckland; The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt.[21][22]
• 2012 Pepeha Bartley and Company Art, Wellington[23]
• 2012 Collecting Contemporary, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa[24]
• 2003 Te Puāwai o Ngāi Tahu: Twelve contemporary Ngāi Tahu artists, Christchurch Art Gallery[25]

Wilkinson is of Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Irakehu and Ngāti Wheke descent.[1]

• Areta Wilkinson interview, Ngā Ringa Toi o Tahu web documentary series
• Megan Tamati-Quennell, Archives – Te Wāhi Pounamu, Areta Wilkinson and Mark Adams, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 22 December 2015
• Mark Amery, Show me your motion, The Big Idea, 26 August 2015
• Interview with Areta Wilkinson, The Dowse Art Museum podcast, August 2015
• Richard Bell, The Third New Zealand Jewellery Biennial: Turangawaewae: A Public Outing, Lower Hutt: The Dowse Art Museum, 1998.
• Deborah Crowe, 4th New Zealand Jewellery Biennale: Grammar: Subjects and Objects, Lower Hutt: The Dowse Art Museum, 2001.
• In Conversation with Areta Wilkinson, Art Jewelry Forum, September 2015.