ARTIST CV
Greg SEMU
Born + raised in New Zealand of Samoan heritage.
Currently based in Sydney, living + working out of Australia.
LATEST NEWS
RECENT SOLO EXHIBITION
TOUR de FORCE / 3 Decades, Bondi Pavillion, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
CURRENT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
SACRED + FORBIDDEN, MCA, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Lifting the TAPU, C3west Programme 2024, MCA, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Bowness Photography Prize 2024, MAPh, VIC, AUSTRALIA
FINALIST
Bowness Photography Prize 2024,(2nd time) Finalist, MAPh- Museum of Australian Photography, VIC, AUSTRALIA
UPCOMING GROUP SHOW
Stemflow: South by South East, Osage Art Foundation, HONG KONG
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
Bowness Photography Prize 2024, MAPh, VIC, AUSTRALIA
Connecting Worlds, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Lyon, FRANCE
Selected work: BODY OF CHRIST, in 12 parts. 2000
SACRED + FORBIDDEN, MCA, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Lifting the TAPU, C3west Programme 2024, MCA, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
2022
QUEER: Stories from the NGV Collection, NGV / National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, VIC, AUSTRALIA
Polyphonic Reverb Curated by Mark Feary, Gertrude Contemporary, Preston, VIC, AUSTRALIA
2023
NAKED + NUDE Art Prize 2023, Manning Regional Gallery, NSW, AUSTRALIA
Then and There, Here and Now: Portraits of Sāmoa, New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata, Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
2023 South Art Season - "Dreaming Back to the South", TaiTung Art Museum, TaiTung, TAIWAN (multiple venues)
2021
Royal Over-Seas League Photography Biennale 2021-International Friendship, Over-Seas House, London, UK
Looking through the Window - Portrait of Tereza Crvenkovic
Biennale Jogja IVX Equator #6 2021, Jogja National Museum, Yogyakarta, INDONESIA
RED COATS + INDIANS 2.0
2021 Sovereign Asian Art Prize, The Sovereign Art Foundation, HONG KONG
THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK AND OTHER COLONIAL CATASTROPHES from the series RED COATS + INDIANS / The Games We Play
RITUAL: the past in the present, Cairns Art Gallery, QLD, AUSTRALIA
selected works from the series Body on the Line
2020
William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize, MGA / Monash Gallery of Art, VIC, AUSTRALIA
Battle Cry from the series RED COATS + INDIANS / The Games We Play
2019
TATAU : Samoan Tattooing and Photography, TePapa Tongarewa / Museum of New Zealand, Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
Sublime Sea: rapture and reality, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery/MPRG, VIC, AUSTRALIA
HERE : From Kupe to Cook, Pātaka Art + Museum, Porirua City, Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
LIQUORICE ALL SORTS , Bondi Pavilion Gallery, Bondi Beach, NSW, AUSTRALIA
Weapons for the SOLDIER - Protecting Country, Culture and FAMILY, Hazlehurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre, NSW, AUSTRALIA
Multiple venues; Touring nationwide till 2022
2018
Chaos & Order - 120 years of collecting at RMIT, RMIT University Art Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, AUSTRALIA
Weapons for the Soldier, Hazelhurst Arts Centre, Sutherland Shire, NSW, AUSTRALIA
New work: 3 Brothers, 3 bodies, 3 landscapes
Oceania Rising: Wayfinders, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre / CPAC, Liverpool, NSW, AUSTRALIA
65th Blake Prize 2018, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centra / CPAC, Liverpool, NSW, AUSTRALIA
New work: Dead body of Christ in Two Parts, Diptych
2017
Collective Vision: 130 Years, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, VIC, AUSTRALIA
The Return, Bondi Pavilion Gallery, Bondi Beach, NSW, AUSTRALIA
Middle of Now | Here, The inaugural Honolulu Biennale, Honolulu, HAWAII, USA
Here, Now, Then, Always, The Pah Homestead, TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre, Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
2016
Art of the Pacific : NGV Collection Focus, NGV / National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, VIC, AUSTRALIA
Provenance Does Matter : Living with Contemporary Art, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, VIC, AUSTRALIA
DENFAIR 2016, Melbourne Convention Centre, Melbourne, VIC, AUSTRALIA
PASSION / Fan Behaviour and Art, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, GERMANY
Traveling exhibition: Germany + Europe. Commissioned new work: Black Bird Rising
2015
Personal Structures / Crossing Borders, Palazzo Bembo, Venice, ITALY
Sydney Contemporary 2015, Carriageworks, Sydney, NSW, AUSTRALIA
Represented by Alcaston Gallery.
Niu Warrior, Griffith Regional Gallery, Griffith, NSW, AUSTRALIA
Body on the Line
2014
Origins, Memories + Parodies, 5th DAEGU Photo Biennale, Daegu Culture + Arts Centre, Daegu, SOUTH KOREA
Stitching the Sea, Blacktown Arts Centre, Blacktown, NSW, AUSTRALIA
New work
Melbourne Art Fair 2014 / MAF, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, VIC, AUSTRALIA
Represented by Alcaston Gallery
2013
Headcount, Enjoy Public Art Gallery, Wellington, Aotearoa / NEW ZEALAND
62nd Blake Prize 2013, College of Fine Arts / COFA, Sydney, NSW, AUSTRALIA
New work: 3 heads of John the Baptist, multimedia video installation
Sydney Contemporary 2013, Carriageworks, Sydney, NSW, AUSTRALIA
Represented by Alcaston Gallery
Paradise Lost? Contemporary Art from the Pacific, UBC Museum of Anthropology multiple venues, Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA
Body on the Line + Mana Pasifika, Logan Art Gallery, Logan City, QLD, AUSTRALIA
2012
7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art / APT 7, Queensland Art Gallery - Gallery of Modern Art / QAGGOMA, Brisbane, QLD, AUSTRALIA
Commissioned new work
Home AKL , Auckland Art Gallery / Toi o Tmkai, Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Commissioned new works: Auto Portrait with Pe’a Sentinel Road, Herne Bay, Triptych
Variable Truth, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney, NSW, AUSTRALIA
2011
Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation / Signature Art Prize, Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
The Last Cannibal Supper, galerie METROPOLIS, Paris, FRANCE
Unnerved, The New Zealand Project, National Gallery of Victoria / NGV, Melbourne, VIC, AUSTRALIA
Touring exhibition
Oceania / Imagining the Pacific, City Gallery, Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
2010
Unnerved, The New Zealand Project, Queensland Art Gallery - Gallery of Modern Art / QAGGOMA, Brisbane, QLD, AUSTRALIA
Body Pacifica, Casula Powerhouse Art Centre, Liverpool, NSW, AUSTRALIA
Commissioned new work: Body on the Line
2009
The Great Journey : In Pursuit of the Ancestral Realm, KMFA / Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, TAIWAN
2008
Samoa Contemporary, Pataka Museum, Porirua - Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
2007
La Mêlée des Cultures / The Scrum of Cultures, Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, FRANCE
Commissioned new work: The Battle of the Noble Savage
2005
Smoke and Mirrors, Queensland Art Gallery - Gallery of Modern Art / QAGGOMA, Brisbane, QLD, AUSTRALIA
L’Art Urbain du Pacifique / Urban Art from the Pacific, Chateau de Saint Auvent, Saint-Auvent, FRANCE
Artist diary, drawings + sketches
2004
Ka kino to pounamu he pounamu onamata, Auckland Art Gallery - Toi o Tamaki, Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
2002
Oeil pour oeil / Eye for eye, Centre d’Art de la Ville de Lyon, Lyon, FRANCE
New work: Collection Priveé
2000
Paris PHOTO 2000 - Salon Internationale pour Photographie , Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, FRANCE
5th Biennale d’Art Contemporain de Lyon - Partage d’exotisme, Halle Tony Garnier, Lyon, FRANCE
New work: Body of Christ in 12 Parts. Gifted by the Artist. With support from Creative New Zealand
1999
TATAU : Polynesian Tattoo, Völkerkunde Museum of Ethnolog, Köln GERMANY
O’le Tatau Samoa - Tattoo Art of Samoa / acquisition
1998
Inei / Konei : The Pacific in Photo Art from Aotearoa, The John Curtin Gallery, Perth, WA, AUSTRALIA
1997
Inei / Konei : The Pacific in Photo Art from Aotearoa, Australian Centre for Photography,Sydney, NSW, AUSTRALIA
Re-Resurrection of Art Space, Artspace, Auckland, NEW ZEALAND Commissioned new work: Re-Resurrection poster
1994
Bottled Ocean, City Gallery. Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
Commissioned new work: Uprising, mixed technique photo sculpture.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024
TOUR de FORCE/3 decades, Bondi Pavillion, NSW, AUSTRALIA
SouthLink ARTS Festival / International Artist Residency, TAIWAN
Commissioned new works + new acquisition The Creation of ADAM + Anatomy of a TATAU Lesson
2022
BLOOD RED 2.0, ESADHAR/ École Supérieure d’Art & Design Le Havre/Rouen, Le Havre, FRANCE
RED COATS + INDIANS / The Games We Play, TaiTung Indigenous Cultural + Creative Industry Park / TTICC, TaiTung, TAIWAN
Commissioned new works + new acquisition
2019
2017
BLOOD RED, Cairns Art Gallery, Queensland, AUSTRALIA
Commissioned new works, multimedia installation supported by Australian Council for the Arts, Queensland Government, Australian Government, Cairns Art Gallery + Alcaston Gallery
2016
Collection + Greg SEMU, SCAF / Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Survey show + new work After Hans Holbein the Younger / Dead body of Christ in the tomb
Raft of the Tagata Pasifika (people of the pacific), NGV / National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
New work, light box installation supported by Creative New Zealand + the Wallace Arts Trust
" 12 ", Cairns Art Gallery, Cairns, Queensland, AUSTRALIA
Survey show of 12 photographs
2015
Two Bodies, two landscapes - Zwei Körper, Zwei Landschaften, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, GERMANY
New work, multimedia installation. Supported by Creative New Zealand
2014
Battle of the Noble Savage, Te Manawa Museum of Art, Science and History, Palmerston North, NEW ZEALAND
2013
The Last Cannibal Supper, because tomorrow we become Christians, Satellite Gallery, Vancouver, CANADA
Supported by Creative New Zealand
2012
Better to Give, The Greg Semu Archive, Auckland Art Gallery / Toi o Tamaki, Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
The Last Cannibal Supper, galerie METROPOLIS, Paris, FRANCE
2011
The Battle of the Noble Savage, City Gallery, Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
2010
The Last Cannibal Supper, because tomorrow we become Christians, Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre, Noumea, NEW CALEDONIA
Commissioned new work + survey show. Multimedia installation
2009
Strictly Samoan / Aussie Aiga, Penrith Regional Gallery + The Lewers Bequest, Penrith, NSW, AUSTRALIA
Commissioned new work. Gifted by the artist.
2007
The Seduction of the Saints, Université du Havre - Le Havre, FRANCE
2001
Antipodes, Maison du Livre, de l’Image et du Son / MLIS. Villerbanne, FRANCE
New works
1995
O le Tatau Samoa / The Tattoo Art of Samoa, Auckland Art Gallery - Toi o Tamaki,Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
New work. First Samoan photographer to be acquisition + exhibited into collections.
RESIDENCIES
South Link Arts Festival / Artist Residence Program 2023, TaiTung County, TAIWAN
2023
2019
TTICC (TaiTung Indigenous Centre for Creation Industry Park), TaiTung, TAIWAN
2016-17
Waverly Artist Studios, Bondi, NSW, AUSTRALIA
2014-15
Creative New Zealand Visual Arts Residency at the Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, GERMANY
2011
Elcho Island Arts Centre, Elcho Island Galiwinku, NT, AUSTRALIA
2010
Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre - Agency for the Development of Kanak Culture / ADCK, Nouméa, NEW CALEDONIA
2010
Campbelltown Arts Centre, Campbelltown, NSW, AUSTRALIA
2009
Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung City, TAIWAN
2008
Unitec / Institute of Technology, Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
2007
Musée du Quay Branly, Paris, FRANCE
La premier artist en residence / first artist in residence
SELECTED COMMISSIONS
2017
BLOOD RED Exhbition, Cairns Art Gallery, Queensland, AUSTRALIA
Community arts project. Solo
2016
After Hans Holbein the Younger, Dead Body of Christ, Collection +: Greg SEMU, SCAF-Sherman Contemporary Arts Foundation, Sydney, NSW, AUSTRALIA
Solo
2012
Self portrait with Pe’a, Sentinel Road - Herne Bay, Home AKL Exhibition, Auckland Art Gallery - Toi o Tamaki. Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Group exhibition
2010
The Last Cannibal Supper, because tomorrow we become Christians, Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre - ADCK. Noumea, NEW CALEDONIA
Community arts project. Solo
Body on the Line, Body Pacifica Exhibition, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre + NRL. Liverpool. NSW, AUSTRALIA
Group exhibition
2009
Sacrifice for Glory, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts. Kaohsiung, TAIWAN
Community arts project
2008
Aussie Aiga, Strictly Samoan exhibition, Penrith Regional Gallery + Lewers Bequest. Penrith. NSW, AUSTRALIA
Community arts project
2007
Battle of the Noble Savage, The Scrum of Cultures / La Mêlée des cultures, Musée du Quai Branly / Jacques Chirac. Paris, FRANCE
Rugby World 2007. Artist response
2000
Body of Christ in 12 Parts : II, Paris Photo 2000, Salon International de la Photographie. Carousel du Louvre. Paris, FRANCE
1998
Picturing Samoa : Photographs by Thomas Andrew, Inaugural Opening (group),Museum of New Zealand / Tepapa Tongarewa. Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
Collaborative artist response with museum collections. Community arts project
1997
Re-resurrection, Inaugural Opening, Artspace. Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Group exhibition
1994
Uprising, Bottled Ocean Exhibition, City Gallery. Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
Group exhibition
AWARDS
2023
Finalist / NAKED + NUDE Art Prize 2023, Manning Regional Art Gallery, NSW, AUSTRALIA
"The RAPE"
2021
Finalist / Royal Over-Seas League Photography Biennale 2021-International Friendship, Over-Seas House, London, UK
Looking through the Window - Portrait of Tereza Crvenkovic
Finalist / 2021 Sovereign Asian Art Prize, The Sovereign Art Foundation, HONG KONG
THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK AND OTHER COLONIAL CATASTROPHES from the series RED COATS + INDIANS / The Games We Play
2020
Finalist / Bowness Prize. MGA / Monash Gallery of Art, VIC, AUSTRALIA
Battle Cry from the series RED COATS + INDIANS / The Games We Play
2018
Finalist / 65th BLAKE Prize. CPAC / Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Liverpool City, NSW, AUSTRALIA
Dead body of Christ in Two Parts, Diptych. Parts 1 + 2
2013
Finalist / 62nd BLAKE Prize. COFA / Sydney College of Fine Art, NSW, AUSTRALIA
Head of John the Baptist, video mixed technique installation
Winner / “People’s Choice” award, 62nd BLAKE Prize. COFA / Sydney College of Fine Art, NSW, AUSTRALIA
Head of John the Baptist, video mixed technique installation
2011
Finalist / Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation Signature Art Prize 2011. SAM / Singapore Art Museum, SINGAPORE
The Last Cannibal Supper, because tomorrow we become Christians, light box photo installation
COLLECTIONS
AUSTRALIA
Artbank
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
Bendigo Art Gallery Collection
Cairns Regional Art Gallery
Casula Powerhouse Art Centre
National Gallery of Australia
National Gallery of Victoria
Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest
Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art
RMIT, Melbourne
SCAF / Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation
FRANCE
La Maison du Livre, de l'Image et du Son, Villeurbanne
MAC Lyon / Musée d‘arts Contemporain, Lyon
Musée du Quai Branly
GERMANY
Humboldt Forum Museum
Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde Frankfurt
NEW CALEDONIA
Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre
NEW ZEALAND
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
Hocken Collections, University of Otago
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Pātaka Art + Museum
The James Wallace Arts Trust
TAIWAN
Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts