Mahiriki Tangaroa

Mahiriki Tangaroa (born 1973)[1] is a New Zealand-born Cook Islands photographer and painter.[2] She is a former director of the Cook Islands National Museum. She is recognised as a leading contemporary Cook Islands artist,[3] and her work is regularly exhibited in galleries in New Zealand and the Cook Islands.[1]

Of Cook Islands heritage, Tangaroa was born in Auckland, New Zealand, and grew up in Christchurch.[4] She studied photography at the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts, before returning to the Cook Islands in 1998.[4]

In 2000 Tangaroa was appointed director of the Cook Islands National Museum, a position she held for three years.[1] She subsequently worked as the director of the Beachcomber Gallery in Avarua.[5]

Tangaroa began to paint in 1999.[5] Her work is inspired by ancient Cook Islands art and artefacts, including the "fisherman's god" Tangaroa, the war god Rongo and the goddess of Aitutaki.[6] Tangaroa's paintings ignites the discussions about the loss of pre-colonial and pre-Christianity culture in the Cook Islands, how indigenous gods that Cook Islanders once worshipped is turned into mass produced commercial exploitation.[7]

In 2010, Tangaroa was invited to curate the exhibition Atua: sacred art from Polynesia,[3] which was displayed at the National Gallery of Australia and the St. Louis Art Museum in the USA.[8]

Tangaroa is the niece of Cook Islands politician Tina Browne.[9]

In 2022, Tangaroa had a solo exhibition titled Kaveinga – Angels of the Ocean, presented by Bergman Gallery in Venice, Italy as part of European Cultural Centre: Personal Structures coinciding Venice Biennale.[10]