Prophet II

Prophet II

Artist
GOSSAGE, Star, 1973-
Date
2003
Description
Maori
Title
Prophet II
Format
Oil & acrylic on 300gsm rag paper
Dimension
665 x 1380 mm

The Artist

Gossage (b.1973) is of Ngati Manuhiri/Wai, Ngati Ruanui, French, English and Portugese descent. She gained a Diploma of Fine Arts from Otago Polytechnic School of Art in 1995. Her practice includes theatre, film-making, poetry and sculpture. Her colour palette refers to the elemental forces of earth, sea and sky and her paints are often mixed with local clay, dirt and lime to achieve the hues and textures she requires. Her figures in her works are compositions of whanau and whakapapa, explaining that she wants her figures to be "more like spirits than humans." Mark Amery states that Gossage's work is a reflection of "beautiful faces from dreams, angel-like apparitions...there's no innocence [present in the figures]; they feel soaked in both love and sadness". Gossage's painting style references European movements such as expressionism, impressionism and surrealism with a Maori based knowledge system. Her collections are held at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, James Wallace Arts Trust and the University of Auckland.

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