Biography

b. 1951
Te Aroha, New Zealand

Susan Te Kahurangi King‘s interest in drawing began during her childhood in the 1950s, and over the subsequent decades has developed into a visually rich, idiosyncratic and evocative practice. During her early years, much of King’s work included a strong focus on the deconstruction, recontextualisation and interpretation of pop culture iconography, ranging from Disney and Warner Bros. cartoon and comic strip characters to motifs drawn from advertising signage and illustrations. Amongst other sources, the fluid, energetic linework and rounded volumes of imported American comics provided King a wealth of motifs; Donald Duck’s blue sailor suit and hat feature in an extended series of 1960s and ‘70s works, while the sleek contours of various Disney characters’ hands, beaks and limbs gradually fold and coalesce into a novel, biomorphic visual discourse that is both culturally resonant and intensely personal.

Group Exhibitions

2020
Outsider Art Fair Paris (w/ Robert Heald Gallery)
Duro Olowu, Seeing Chicago – MCA Chicago
Dream Baby Dream – Haus Modrath, Belgium
Brittle Star – Robert Heald Gallery
Collectouples – New York Academy of Art

2019
Happy, NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale
One Hundred Drawings, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
Prix Art Absolument, Espace Art Absolument, Paris
Flight Plan, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Auckland
Under the Spell of the Image, The Approach Gallery, London
The Doors of Perception, Frieze New York.
Drawn Together Again, The Flag Art Foundation, New York
Felix Art Fair, Marlborough Gallery

2018
Vestiges & Verse: Notes from the Newfangled Epic, American Folk Art Museum, New York
The Armory Show New York, (w/ Marlborough Gallery)

2017
Margins Beyond, Kirk Hopper Fine Art Gallery, Dallas
Outsider Art Fair New York ( w/ Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York)
Outsider Art Fair Paris (w/ Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York)
Looking Back / The 11th White Columns Annual, White Columns, New York
All Lines Converge, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth

2016
Spring 1883 (w/ Robert Heald Gallery) The Hotel Windsor, Melbourne
Outsider Art Fair Paris (w/ Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York)

2015
Word Builders, The Dowse, Lower Hutt
We will begin by drawing, we shall continue to draw and then we shall draw some more, Tim Van Laere Gallery, Antwerp
dRAW , Intuit, The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago
Moving Pictures: Early Animation and it's Influence, Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Ketchum
Out of Order, Calder & Lawson Gallery, University of Waikato
Interfaces: Outsider Art and the Mainstream, Philadelphia Museum of Art
Art Basel Miami Beach (w/ Andrew Edlin)

2014
Outsider Art Fair, Auckland
Shit Like Hair, White Flag Projects, Missouri
Promenades, Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington
Purple States, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York

2012
Secret Garden, Hastings City Art Gallery, Hastings
Local Knowledge, Madmusee, Liege, Belgium
Look, Know, Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington

Solo Exhibitions

2019
In Colour, Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington
Little, Little, Big, Wallace Gallery, Morrinsville
Susan Te Kahurangi King: 1958-2018, Intuit, The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago

2018
Little, Little, Big, The Pah Homestead, TBS Wallace Arts Centre, Auckland
Drawings 2008-2018, Marlborough Contemporary, London
Paperdwellers, Artspace, Auckland
Auckland Art Fair (w/ Brent Harris) (w/ Robert Heald Gallery)
Outsider Art Fair New York (w/ C Byrne + Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York)

2017
Drawings 1960-70, Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington
Susan Te Kahurangi King, Marlborough Contemporary, London

2016
Drawings 1975-1989, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, USA.
Susan Te Kahurangi King, ICA Miami

2015
From The One I Call My Own (w/ Shannon Te Ao), City Gallery, Wellington
Drawings 1975-1980, Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington
Outsider Art Fair New York (w/ Peter Saul) (w/ C Byrne + Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York)

2014
Susan Te Kahurangi King: Drawings from Many Worlds, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York
Outsider Art Fair New York (w C Byrne + Marquand Books)

2013
Outsider Art Fair Paris (w/ C Byrne + Marquand Books)

2010
Introducing Susan Te Kahurangi King, The High Seas, Auckland

2009
Susan Te Kahurangi King, Callan Park Gallery, University of Sydney

Susan Te Kahurangi King

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