Artists

Michel Tuffery is a Polynesian artist born 1966 Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand of Samoan, Rarotongan and Mahoi Tahitian heritage.
He works in various media; printmaking, drawings, paintings on tapa cloth and canvas, sculpture, performances and emblematic carvings are the artistic offerings of a keen historian and active participator in contemporary culture. Tuffery graduated DFA (Hons) from Otago Polytechnic in 1988. In 1993 he participated in the 1st Asia Pacific Triennial, at Queensland Art Gallery. In 2008 he received the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the arts. Tuffery is one of a number of New Zealand-born
Pacific Islanders who reference their identity through European artistic traditions: We’re this third generation, we were born here. If you go to a new place you create a new culture, and that’s what we’re doing.