Te Rongo Kirkwood b. 1973
I am proud to announce we now represent Te Rongo Kirkwood. An extraordinary artist of Māori (Waikato, Taranaki, Wai o Hua, Te Kawerau a Maki, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki) and Scottish descent, Te Rongo has quietly built an exceptional international reputation. Her practice, rooted in glass but extending across media and performance, blends ancestral knowledge with contemporary form.
In 2024, Te Rongo made history as the first New Zealand artist commissioned for the prestigious Rakow Acquisitional Commission at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York - the pinnacle of international recognition for an artist working with glass. Her commissioned work, The Seer, The Seen, The Seeing, combined sculptural installation and live performance, marking a major moment not just for her own practice, but for Aotearoa’s presence on the global glass art stage.
Te Rongo's art speaks across cultures and generations. It is deeply personal, richly grounded in Māori knowledge systems, and at the same time profoundly international.
Whether working in kiln-formed glass or staging ephemeral performance, Te Rongo’s works are meditations on time, lineage, and transformation.
We are honoured to work with Te Rongo and look forward to presenting her work in next week's Auckland Art Fair, and in the gallery in Wellington.
