Abstract

The new millennium has seen a raft of contemporary Māori art exhibitions that have sought to capture the diverse nature of Contemporary Māori art including Korurangi New Māori art and Purangiaho: Seeing Clearly in 2001 among others. The paper reviews these exhibitions in relation to prior late twentieth century Māori art exhibitions including Choice and Kohia ko taiakaka anake -artists create new directions, art critic Keith Stewart’s review of the Korurangi exhibition, Professor Hirini Moko Mead’s criteria for validating Māori art and artists and the author’s paradigm for Māori art. The paper argues that the ethnic labelling of art is not cultural apartheid but an ideological construct born out of a desire to maintain self-autonomy and self-expression in the arts.