Andy Leleisi'uao b. 1969

ANDY LELEISI’UAO

b. 1969

Andy Leleisi’uao is one of the most significant Pacific artists living and working in New Zealand today. Over the past twenty years his style has morphed from highly volatile, expressive paintings and sculpture into sophisticated stories reflecting the artist’s personal beliefs.

A full time artist since 1996, Andy was awarded a scholarship to attend AUT and received a Master of Fine Arts with Honours in 2002.  He has exhibited throughout New Zealand and been involved in solo and group exhibitions in Australia, Rarotonga, Germany, Taiwan and the USA.

 In 2021 Andy was awarded the Senior Pacific Artist Award by Creative New Zealand.

Andy tells the story of what we can be as a species, regardless of our cultural stature, skin colour, sexual orientation or religious convictions. He is an “artist of diaspora” - an artist whose family migrated from one part of the world to another - and who express their diverse experiences of culture and identity in the work they make; often expressing alternative narratives and challenging ideas and structures.

Immigrant communities and their experiences are central to Andy’s works - he is the son of first generation immigrant Samoans, who came to Auckland  in 1965.  His work is reflective of his experience as a New Zealand born Samoan and his parents and their generation’s narratives will always be an integral part of his work. 

Through his more recent paintings, Leleisi’uao has created alternative universes, emergent societies populated by strange creatures that are free of traditional human prejudice. It is a genesis point, a veritable human reset button. His influence ranges from ancient & modern history, literary history, art history, pop culture history, world headlines and personal experiences.  The lands and villages are non-existent, unique new worlds that he “visits” in his mind. 

Whether he is confronting the issues of Samoan diaspora or narratives of human and family relationships, Andy’s prescient talent for seeing who we are, what we are like and what we do, is a signature of his art.

His  work is included in the permanent collections of Pataka Museum and Art Gallery, Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, the Chartwell Collection, the Wallace Arts Trust collection, Casula Powerhouse, Sydney and the Museum of Ethnography, Frankfurt, Germany. 

Andy Leleisi’uao has been represented at ARTIS Gallery since 2020.