Welcome to the Cuddy-Cuddy Contemporary Gallery.

I am Hista Wells, Curator and Director. We are proud to present the life and works of one of

our Tearoa's most notable artists and founder of this gallery, Roi Marta Mangakahia.

This exhibit focuses on the evolution of Mangakahia's works over the course of her long career,

from her early landscapes and portraits, skillful but straightforward, to her more surreal and

fantastical focus on smaller objects later in her career. While Mangakahia did not get the

recognition she deserved from art critics or the public, at least internationally speaking,

she was well regarded by her peers and was part of a sprawling collective of artists.

In particular, she formed a close relationship with Claudia Artiano in a friendship that could

perhaps be compared to that of Virginia Woolf and Catherine Mansfield. This exhibit will

address the inspiration the two artists took from each other's works. Artiano was Mangakahia's

passion. Her every work or gesture was received by Mangakahia as either a favour or a threat.

Perhaps they were. Unlike Artiano, whose worked out in wise statements, sweeping political views

made clear in her reimagining of famous works destroyed in the Great Reckoning, Mangakahia

rivelled in the intimate depths of what makes us human. Her surreal, twisting limbs and contorted

faces showed the complexity of emotions within the body itself. Even her uninhabited landscapes

enveloped the viewer as if to place them into her world, forcing them to come to terms with

the reality she was experiencing. This exhibit is a survey of perhaps my favourite artist,

a woman whose work should be celebrated more widely than it has been so far. Many art lovers,

even those who live here in Altearoa, never knew of Mangakahia's work. We hope this exhibit

will excite and enlighten you. To be frank, I am almost jealous of those of you who will

be experiencing Mangakahia's work for the first time. Please begin your audio tour on the left

...