Lily Laita
Encyclopedia
Lily Aitua Laita is an artist and art educator in New Zealand
. Laita is of mixed Pākehā
and Māori ancestry, as well as of Samoan
descent. Laita is known for using Māori, English and Samoan texts in her paintings.
Laita graduated with a Batchelor of Fine Arts from the Elam School of Fine Arts in 1990, and completed her Masters in Painting in 2002. She taught at Wanganui Polytech and Western Springs College, Auckland.
She has been part of major group exhibitions including the Samoa Contemporary touring exhibition which opened at the Pataka Museum and Gallery in Wellington
2008 followed by the Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui and Tauranga Art Gallery in 2009.
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. Laita is of mixed Pākehā
Pakeha
Pākehā is a Māori language word for New Zealanders who are "of European descent". They are mostly descended from British and to a lesser extent Irish settlers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although some Pākehā have Dutch, Scandinavian, German, Yugoslav or other ancestry...
and Māori ancestry, as well as of Samoan
Samoans
The Samoan people are a Polynesian ethnic group of the Samoan Islands, sharing genetics, language, history and culture. Due to colonialism, the home islands are politically and geographically divided between the country of Samoa, official name Independent State of Samoa ; and American Samoa, an...
descent. Laita is known for using Māori, English and Samoan texts in her paintings.
Laita graduated with a Batchelor of Fine Arts from the Elam School of Fine Arts in 1990, and completed her Masters in Painting in 2002. She taught at Wanganui Polytech and Western Springs College, Auckland.
Exhibitions
Laita has exhibited extensively in New Zealand and internationally including Te Moemoea no Iotefa (1990/1991), Bottled Ocean (1993/1994) and Vahine (2003).She has been part of major group exhibitions including the Samoa Contemporary touring exhibition which opened at the Pataka Museum and Gallery in Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
2008 followed by the Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui and Tauranga Art Gallery in 2009.