Louie Bretaña

Louis Joseph Rivera Bretaña is a Filipino-born New Zealand painter and sculptor with roots in Manila and the Visayan province of Iloilo.[1][2]

Bretaña graduated with Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts, and moved to New Zealand in 2011.[2][3] He subsequently earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts with first-class honours (2018) and a Master of Fine Arts degree (2019) from the Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland.[3][4]

Bretaña's work actively challenges Euro-western colonial histories and encouraging a respectful engagement with culture via conversation and interaction.[5]

Bretaña's notable performance piece Eat My Rice was held in multiple locations throughout New Zealand, such as New Lynn Community Centre,[6] Projectspace Gallery,[7] RM Gallery,[1] and Play_Station.[8] Eat My Rice is a reimagining of the Filipino pre-colonial feast, where participants eat the rice with bare hands, food served on banana leaves, and letting go of standards and expectations of Euro-western society.[6]

Pre-Christianity Filipino deities play a major role in Bretaña's paintings and sculptures; they act as a platform for pre-colonial Filipino narratives and mythologies,[9] using glitter and glass crystals,[10] but are merged with the local New Zealand context.[11]