John Pule (b. 1962, Liku, Niue) is a renowned artist and writer from the tiny island of Niue, located in the South Pacific Ocean. Recognized as one of the Pacific’s most significant contemporary artists, Pule’s work has been celebrated globally since the 1990s. His art uniquely intertwines traditional Polynesian motifs with modern sensibilities, creating a vibrant and personal narrative.
At the age of two, Pule and his family moved to New Zealand, a country that has significantly influenced his work. Despite this, Pule has continually returned to Niue, drawing inspiration from its history, natural features, and familial ties to the land. His art is deeply rooted in the iconography and history of Polynesia and the Pacific, often exploring themes of religiosity, colonization, and displacement.
Pule’s work spans various mediums, including painting on canvas and bark cloth. The visual language of hippo, a traditional decorative barkcloth from Niue, particularly inspires him. His large-scale paintings and intricate designs reflect a rich tapestry of cultural and historical references, making him a pivotal figure in contemporary Oceanic art.
In 2018, the Royal Academy featured Pule’s work in a monumental survey of Oceanic art. His large-scale five-panel painting was showcased alongside 200 contemporary and historical works, representing key points in 500 years of regional history. Pule’s work has also been displayed extensively at prestigious institutions such as the Queensland Art Gallery and the Asia-Pacific Triennial.
In 2011, the Auckland Art Gallery held a major survey show dedicated to Pule, highlighting his significant contributions to contemporary art. He has received numerous accolades, including the Arts Foundation Laureate Award. He has been an artist-in-residence at notable institutions like the Cultural Museum and the Romerapotheke Art Residency in Basel, Switzerland.
Pule’s work is in several public collections, including the Auckland Art Gallery, Te Papa Tongarewa (Museum of New Zealand), the National Gallery of Victoria, and the Queensland Art Gallery.
Pule’s impact on the art world extends beyond the Pacific, making him a global figure in contemporary art. His participation in the 2018 Royal Academy of Arts Oceania exhibition underscored his importance, with his work prominently featured among 200 pieces spanning 500 years of Oceanic history.
John Pule’s art not only reflects his deep connection to Niue and Polynesia but also engages with broader themes of immigration, colonization, and cultural identity. His ability to merge historical and modern elements into a cohesive and powerful narrative cements his place as a leading artist of the Pacific and beyond.
Venus Over Manhattan to Open First US-based Solo Exhibition of Renowned Niuean Artist John Pule
September 12 – October 26, 2024
Opening: Thursday, September 12th, 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Venus Over Manhattan
39 Great Jones Street
New York, NY 10012
(New York, NY) – On September 12, Venus Over Manhattan will open the first US-based solo exhibition of artist and poet John Pule. From the tiny island nation of Niue in the South Pacific Ocean, Pule has risen to become one of the region’s most celebrated and essential artists. It is increasingly gaining notoriety across the world. His intricate paintings and drawings offer distinct meditations on the history, natural environs, and iconography of his home island and Polynesia more broadly. With John Pule, Venus Over Manhattan presents a unique opportunity for American audiences to experience the depth of Pule’s dynamic work, enhancing global awareness of his singular vision and practice. The exhibition will remain on view through October 26 at the gallery’s location at 39 Great Jones Street.
“We look forward to presenting the first solo exhibition of John Pule’s work in New York and the U.S. more broadly. As representation of and dialogues with Indigenous artists have increased over the past few years, we are excited to bring more global Indigenous voices into the conversation,” said Adam Lindemann, founder of Venus Over Manhattan. “John’s work is truly unique, both formally and conceptually, and will have strong relevance and resonance for many people. It’s our pleasure to enhance our knowledge of and engagement with his important practice further.”
To further explore Pule’s dynamic work and especially his recent paintings featured in the forthcoming exhibition, Venus Over Manhattan will host a panel discussion with the artist and Dr. Maia Nuku, Curator for the Arts of Oceania at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who has known Pule since the 1990s. More details regarding the date of the event will be shared in the coming weeks.
Pule was born in the village of Liku and immigrated to Aotearoa, New Zealand, at an early age. Pule remains deeply connected to his birthplace and now splits his time between Niue and Auckland. A self-taught artist who first entered creative spheres through his extensive and award-winning body of poetry, Pule often draws on his own migration story and sense of identity to explore broader Niuean culture and mythologies. His art intertwines expressions of land, ocean, and people, both familiar and foreign, as well as symbols of colonization, displacement, and religion to create a visual topography that embraces personal and communal histories.
Pule’s visual vocabulary is also strongly informed by hippo, a traditional Niuean decorative barkcloth. In the 19th century, hippos were characterized by motifs inspired by native plant life and produced in fluid freehand directly on the cloth. With colonization, these works began to feature images of colonial influence, melding traditional Niuean cultural iconography with that of modern events. Pule’s work often emphasizes representations of nature as well as references from across cultures and time, bringing past and present together into singular compositions on canvas, barkcloth, and paper.
John Pule features new paintings from a series produced in the past year. Paintings such as Takeleaga, Hina, Haia, and Deep Niue Evening showcase Pule’s distinct engagement with both rich, saturated colors and evocations of nature. The vibrant paintings compel the eye and draw the viewer into Pule’s fantastical abstract landscapes. Works like These hot evenings make dreaming complicated and establish an entirely different visual encounter, capturing Pule’s incredible range. In this work, and others like it, symbols and gestural marks collide in an open expanse, flattening any specific sense of time, place, and narrative and highlighting Pule’s contemporary sensibilities as he illuminates different historical touchpoints. Works from this series recently featured prominently in the 2024 Sydney Biennale.
While the influence of hippo appears across Pule’s oeuvre, works such as Miomimioi (2023) and Nakai momo he a tautology, Ka e faliu a tau-toli oti (c. 1994) offer the most significant visual continuity. Here, much like in many of the traditional barkcloth works, symbols, marks, and references are presented within a loose grid, encapsulating parts of an expansive story within a contained structure. The works are both elusive and evocative, framing ongoing histories and mythologies with a compositional continuum.
Together, the works on view offer a broad view into the depth and breadth of Pule’s practice, highlighting his unique ability to combine different narrative threads and expressions in ways that honor cultural traditions and create an utterly contemporary experience.
Pule’s paintings were featured in a publication accompanying Dr. Nuku’s exhibition, ATEA: Nature and Divinity in Polynesia (Nov. 2018 – Oct. 2019), at the Metropolitan Museum. In this publication, she writes that his paintings “embrace an atmosphere suggestive of ancient landscapes, a primordial Polynesia.” “Verdant and glossy,” Nuku writes, “these latest works seem to pulse with the energy of burgeoning life, from the thick undergrowth of the forest to the glassine sanctum of underwater rock pools… They speak eloquently to the flourishing life brought on by a team, the light: the brief but crucial spark, conceived as consciousness, that evolved into the layered canopies of the sky and drew the cosmos out of the darkness.”
ABOUT JOHN PULE
John Pule (b.1962, Liku, Niue) is a renowned artist and poet. His work has been presented extensively at prestigious institutions and events, including at the Queensland Art Gallery, the 24th Biennale of Sydney, and the Asia-Pacific Triennial. In 2011, the Auckland Art Gallery held a major survey of his work, highlighting his significant contributions to contemporary art. In 2018, one of his large-scale, multi-panel paintings was featured in the monumental study Oceania at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Pule has been invited to essential residency programs, including at the Romerapotheke Art Residency in Basel, Switzerland. It has been honored with such awards as the Laureate Award given by the Arts Foundation of New Zealand. Pule’s work is held in several public collections, including the Auckland Art Gallery, Te Papa Tongarewa (Museum of New Zealand), the National Gallery of Victoria, and the Queensland Art Gallery.
ABOUT VENUS OVER MANHATTAN
Venus Over Manhattan is dedicated to illuminating the work of a diverse range of historical and contemporary artists through dynamic rotating exhibitions and scholarly publications. Since it was founded by Adam Lindemann in 2012, the gallery has been responsible for revitalizing and establishing commercial, academic, and public interest for artists such as Peter Saul, Richard Mayhew, and Joan Brown. Venus Over Manhattan operates from two locations on Great Jones Street, and its distinct exhibitions program, which has recently featured works by Claude Lawrence, Peter Saul, Richard Mayhew, Chéri Samba, Keiichi Tanaami, and Joan Brown, attracts a broad spectrum of collectors, curators, writers, and art enthusiasts. As art world trends continue to shift, Venus Over Manhattan remains steadfast in its focus on the discovery of artists across generations, geographies, and cultures and expanding the depth of artists celebrated across global institutions, by audiences, and within the art market.
