Graham Fletcher

b.1969, New Zealand
Lives in Dunedin, New Zealand

Graham Fletcher has exhibited extensively in New Zealand and abroad since he began his career as an artist in the late 1990s. Fletcher’s work visually communicates a Postcolonial discourse, exploring cross-cultural relationships between Western and non-Western peoples. His practice plays with preconceived notions of the coloniser versus the colonised, and the observer versus the observed. Of particular interest is the European predilection for housing Oceanic and African Tribal art in domestic settings; here Fletcher explores how this practice can be subverted within a contemporary Pacific and New Zealand context.

In her 2016 text Collapse and Freedom, curator Megan Tamati-Quenell wrote, “Fletcher’s ‘Lounge Room Tribalism’ works also take their lead from the European and American surrealists of the 1920s and 30s. Having taonga and modern art cohabit in a collective environment was a practice embraced by the surrealists.” Further to this, she stated, “Fletcher’s location as a contemporary Samoan artist of mixed Samoan and European descent adds dimension to these works. Culturally, he occupies a dual position, an interior and an outside position. It is from this vantage point he explores cross-cultural engagement within an art and a post-colonial frame.”

Fletcher holds a Doctorate from Elam School of Fine Arts (2010) and is currently Senior Lecturer, Studio Coordinator of Painting at the Dunedin School of Art. His exhibition history includes Home AKL at Auckland Art Gallery (2012), the 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at Queensland Art Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2012), and Future Primitive at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne (2013). His works are held in a broad range of important collections around the country, including Te Papa Tongarewa.

Gow Langsford Gallery has represented Graham Fletcher since 2014.