Lorene Taurerewa 2015 exhibition. Milford

Instal shot 

“Taurerewa shifts scales and frames the way Shakespeare would set a play within a play, to structure different layers of fiction and thereby invert the relationships of cause and effect... These are not layers to be separated, rather roots hopelessly knotted, tangled from trying to grow in the inhospitable soil of our era, or perhaps of our human nature.” (1)

Tokoroa-born and New York-based, Taurerewa works in a range of media including charcoal, watercolours and oils. Her works tap into a world of the subconscious and raise many more questions than answers. Figures suggestive of freak show or circus escapees populate her drawn and painted worlds, their looming torsos creating a palpable sense of apprehension and unease. 

“Unnerved,” a group show at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art in 2010, featured drawings from Taurerewa’s “Psychopompe” series alongside works from Anne Noble, Michael Parekowhai and Lisa Reihana. Curator Maud Page described Taurerewa’s drawings as “Dark and otherworldly… [appearing] to exist outside time, emerging instead as the not-quite-controllable creations of psychological realms.” (2) The set of 20 drawings were subsequently acquired by the Queensland Art Gallery for its permanent collection.

Taurerewa held a permanent position as Lecturer in Drawing in the School of Design at the Victoria University of Wellington from 2000-2009 and has featured in a regular schedule of national and international exhibitions throughout the last decade.

Lorene Taurerewa is also represented by ROOM ARTSPACE NYC http://roomartspacenyc.com/