John Walsh

Over the course of his career, John Walsh has built a reputation as one of the leading contemporary painters in Aotearoa. Of Te Aitanga a Hauiti and Irish ancestry, Walsh is known for his stylised figurative paintings, which often depict scenes or characters from myths and legends of East Coast Māori. His work often employs layers of thin washes and scumbling in a palette frequently dominated by blue and green tones.
Born in Tolaga Bay in New Zealand’s North Island, John Walsh spent much of his early days in the Gisborne region before travelling to Christchurch where he attended Ilam School of Fine Arts at Canterbury University between 1973 and 1974. He later returned to the East Coast where he specialised in portraiture. From the mid 70’s he worked on Marae restoration and related art projects before taking up teaching and curatorial positions.
In the catalogue for a 2001 exhibition at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki titled, Purangiaho: Seeing Clearly, curator Ngahiraka Mason described Walsh’s images as, “surreal images of intriguing figures...a cast of creatures who look only part human appear in transit between this world and the next. Their means of transport is a floating futuristic helix with underworld tones while the characters [...] play out the dramas of life, love, and lore.”
Significant exhibitions of Walsh’s work include, a major survey titled Matakite at Pataka Art + Museum, Porirua in 2016; Flying Solo, The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, 2009; Purangiaho – Seeing Clearly, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, 2001 and Parihaka – the Art of Passive Resistance, City Gallery, Wellington, 2001. In 2015 Walsh was selected to travel to Gallipoli alongside other Australasian artists, to produce work for the touring exhibition Your friend the Enemy. His works are included in numerous collections nationally and internationally, including Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, and the Tjibaou Cultural Centre, Noumea.
Text by Gow Langsford.