Biography
Born in 1946, Fatu Akelei Feu’u, ONZM is a noted Samoan artist. He grew up in the village of Poutasi in the district of Falealili and emigrated to New Zealand in 1966. He has established a reputation as the elder statesman of Pacific art in New Zealand. Feu’u has been an exhibiting artist since the early 1980s and became a full-time artist in 1988.
Feu’u has exhibited in numerous exhibitions in New Zealand and internationally with works in national and private collections worldwide. He has exhibited in solo and major group exhibitions including Samoa Contemporary (2008) at Pataka Art + Museum in Porirua. Feu’u’s work was included in two groundbreaking exhibitions of contemporary Pacific art: Te Moemoea no Iotefa, curated by Rangihiroa Panaho for the Sarjeant Art Gallery in 1990 and Bottled Ocean curated by Jim Viviaeare, which toured New Zealand in 1994-1995.
Feu’u was part of the major group exhibition Le Folauga: the past coming forward – Contemporary Pacific Art from Aotearoa New Zealand, at the Auckland Museum which later toured to Taiwan.
Feu’u works across a range of mediums including painting, bronze, wood and stone sculpture, pottery design, lithographs, woodcuts and glass works. His work is inspired by Polynesian art forms such as siapo (tapa cloth), tatau (tattoo), weaving, carving and ceremonial mask making. In these forms he uses a rich lexicon of motifs and compositional structures. His works frequently blend traditional and contemporary elements, incorporating a range of influences, inspirations, techniques and motifs from Samoa and Aotearoa and more generally from Euro-American to Pacific cultures.
Fa’asamoa is the unifying element of Feu’u’s work. The term fa’asamoa is generally defined as ‘the Samoan way’. The social structure of Samoan society is held together and actively maintained by an adherence to unwritten but understood cultural conventions embodied in fa’asamoa which binds family networks to traditional customs and ceremonies.
Feu’u’s work is included in a number of prestigious national and international collections including the National Gallery, Brisbane; Auckland Art Gallery; Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, Wellington; and Waikato Museum of Art and History, Hamilton. His work is also included in an extensive number of private collections in New Zealand, Australia, United States of America, England, Holland, American Samoa, Samoa and Japan. Feu’u was appointed a Honorary Officer of New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2001 New Years Honours List.