Shane William Cotton

Place: Upper Hutt

Born: 1964

Biography:

Shane William Cotton is a New Zealand painter born in Upper Hutt, New Zealand in 1964. He is known for his work that explores biculturalism, colonialism, cultural identity, Māori spirituality, and life and death. Cotton is of dual Maori (Ngati Rangi, Ngati Hine, Te Uri Taniwha) and Pakeha (European) descent, and his iconography borrows widely from both Pakeha and Maori historical sources. He employs a complex set of symbols across his works to speak to contemporary issues of colonisation, cross-cultural exchange, identity and spirituality. Cotton is key to a generation of young Maori artists who came to prominence in the 1990s for their innovative use of non-traditional materials and processes, while directly addressing concerns of importance to Maori. He is also known for his characteristic flattened picture plane that allows for complex topographies, which also refer to layered and shifting understandings of landscape and land ownership.