Ayesha Green
Biography
Image by Sam Hartnett
Ayesha Green sustains a provocative engagement with processes of reproduction. She utilises mimicry and copying to undermine the authority of symbolic objects, questioning the authenticity of their claims to power.
Ayesha Green (Ngāti Kahungunu, Kai Tahu) is a contemporary Māori Artist. Born 1987 Ōtautahi Christchurch, she lives and works in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.
Working across painting, drawing, and sculpture, Ayesha examines histories of Māori and Pākehā representation, often questioning the particular ‘truths’ or myths they perpetuate. Her practice co-opts culturally loaded images from the history of Aotearoa—by the likes of Benjamin West, Isaac Coates, Marcus King, and Gordon Walters—and breaks them down to their pictorial elements, drawing attention to the systems of power that bestow them with value. Through subtle acts of mirroring and repositioning, she upends the supposed stability of images and their claims to a collective identity.
Works
Installation shots
Ayesha Green
Good Citizen, 2021
Jhana Millers Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington
Installation image
Exhibitions
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Ayesha Green, Te Pōwhiri
27 Nov - 19 Dec 2025Te Pōwhiri brings together a new body of work that looks closely at Queen Charlotte Sound / Tōtaranui as a site of first encounters and myth-making. Focusing on Ship Cove...Read more -
Summer Selection – Portraits
29 Jan - 15 Feb 2025Read more -
Editions
9 May - 1 Jun 2024Jhana Millers is pleased to present their first print exhibition featuring a group of represented artists.Read more -
Ayesha Green, The Radical Utopia of the Great Pacific
14 Mar - 6 Apr 2024Jhana Millers is pleased to present their third solo exhibition with Ayesha Green (Ngāti Kahungunu, Kai Tahu).Read more -
FIVE
7 - 29 Jul 2023Jhana Millers is pleased to present a group exhibition of work by the gallery's represented artists to celebrate the gallery's 5th anniversaryRead more -
Screaming Waterfall — Ayesha Green, Harry Culy, Tyne Gordon, Lily McRae, Georgia Arnold
13 - 29 Oct 2022Jhana Millers presents a group exhibition with new work to the gallery by five artistsRead more -
Self by Others, Ayesha Green, Elisabeth Pointon, Christopher Ulutupu, Claudia Kogachi, Caitlin Devoy, Robbie Handcock
1 - 18 Dec 2021Group Exhibition, Self by Others. Exhibition at Jhana Millers Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington, Aotearoa New ZealandRead more -
Group Exhibition, THE BIG THREE
9 - 31 Jul 2021Group Exhibition, THE BIG THREE. Exhibition at Jhana Millers Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington, Aotearoa New ZealandRead more -
Ayesha Green, Good Citizen
13 May - 5 Jun 2021Ayesha Green, Good Citizen. Exhibition at Jhana Millers Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand.Read more -
Auckland Art Fair, The Right Place?
24 - 28 Feb 2021Auckland Art Fair, The Right Place?. Exhibition at Jhana Millers Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington, Aotearoa New ZealandRead more -
Group Exhibition, He Tohu
18 Jun - 11 Jul 2020He Tohu, Ayesha Green, Kauri Hawkins, Maioha Kara, Nikau Hindin. Exhibition at Jhana Millers Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington, Aotearoa New ZealandRead more -
Ayesha Green, Elizabeth the First
1 - 24 Aug 2019Ayesha Green, Elizabeth the First. Exhibition at Jhana Millers Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington, Aotearoa New ZealandRead more
Press
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Ayesha Green is the recipient of the Harriet Friedlander New York residency
ARTNOW, September 12, 2024 -
Once upon a time: On The radical utopia of the Great Pacific by Ayesha Green
Commissioned textFrancis McWhannell, March 13, 2024 -
50 things collectors should know | Ayesha Green
Francis McWhannell, Art Collector, January 1, 2024 -
The simultaneity of things
Hanahiva Rose, Folk Nationalism and other stories , July 1, 2023 -
Firmly rooted in place: the rise of rock art in contemporary toi Māori praxis
Sarah Hudson, Folk Nationalism and other stories, July 1, 2023 -
A Truer Picture
Francis McWhannell, Folk Nationalism and other stories, July 1, 2023 -
Imagined Communities
Lachlan Taylor, Folk Nationalism and other stories, July 1, 2023 -
Looking at a green field, for two Māori boys
Matariki Williams, Folk Nationalism and other stories , July 1, 2023 -
Huriawa Pā, February 7th, 2023
Madison Kelly, Jess Nicholson and Moewai Marsh, Folk Nationalism and other stories, July 1, 2023 -
Against Malaise, Pacific artists Respond to Poetry
Samuel te Kani, Art New Zealand, March 1, 2023 -
Making Waves
Sharon Stephenson, KIAORA by AirNZ, March 1, 2023 -
TO RENDER LIFE DELIGHTFUL. A POSY FOR AYESHA, ALICIA AND LAURA
SIMON GENNARD, Gus Fisher , February 10, 2023 -
HISTORY AT OUR TABLE
Matariki Williams , McCahon House , December 10, 2022 -
Find identity through mimicry
ArtZone, December 1, 2022 -
Folk Nationalism
Art News New Zealand, September 1, 2022 -
PAEMANU: TAURAKA TOI
Caitlin Donnelly, Lucy Hammonds, Kiri Jarden, ArtNow, June 30, 2022 -
Meet the maker: Visual artist Ayesha Green
Shandelle Battersby, Stuff, June 3, 2022 -
The psychogeographers' Dream
David Eggleton, Art New Zealand -
Undermining the original, copying to create: an interview with Ayesha Green
Lucinda Bennett -
Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art
Edited By Nigel Borell , Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art , March 16, 2022 -
Constructions & Reconstructions – a conversation with Ayesha Green
Matthew Galloway, Pan Publications, December 15, 2021 -
Toi Tū Toi Ora Artist Profile: Ayesha Green
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, November 1, 2021 -
250 years of New Zealand Painting
Docking, Dunn and Hanfling, October 11, 2021 -
Ayesha Green: Ways of Seeing
Rose of Sharon Leake, Art Edit AU, June 1, 2021 -
Ayesha Green, Good Citizen
Matariki Williams, Exhibition essay, May 13, 2021 -
Reparative Intimacy
Robyn Maree Pickens, Art Now, March 26, 2021 -
Imperial Vegetables, Lachlan Taylor on Ayesha Green’s I thought I heard you crying in the forest
Lachlan Taylor, The Art Paper, February 24, 2021 -
Meet Ayesha Green, The Artist Unearthing The Language Of Flowers
Ginny Fisher, Viva, February 24, 2021 -
Shaping Aotearoa
Issac Taylor, M2Women, September 23, 2020 -
Public art work to function as gateway
Grant Miller, Otago Daily Times, June 10, 2020 -
A Constant Unpacking
Art News New Zealand, December 22, 2019 -
Nana's Birthday, by Ayesha Green, wins NZ Contemporary Arts Award
Radio New Zealand, August 2, 2019 -
The Origin of Table Manners
Elle Loui, Matters Aotearoa, Issue 8, August 1, 2019 -
Issue 89
Francis McWhannell, Art Collector, July 1, 2019 -
Māori Girl
Tia Pohatu, Hamster, Issue 4, May 1, 2019 -
Here and now, exhibition catalogue
Malcom Smith Gallery, September 28, 2018 -
Ayesha Green - Dunedin
Edward Hanfling, Art New Zealand, Issue 169, September 23, 2018 -
(Un)conditional III
Jamie Hanton, The physics room, August 2, 2018 -
Ayesha Green
Lucinda Bennett, Art Collector Issue 84, April 1, 2018 -
(Un)conditional II
Sarah McClintock and Jamie Hanton, The Physics room, March 18, 2018 -
Art Zone Interview
Lily Hacking, ArtZone, January 16, 2018 -
Greener Pastures
Lily Hacking, ArtZone, Issue 70, July 1, 2017
Video
