Unauthenticated

By: Tama tk Sharman

"I asked for riches. You gave me scavenging rights on a far beach." - Kerri Hulme

Opening Celebration Sunday 3rd March from 1pm.

Unauthenticated brings to life a menagerie of imagery. This continues Tama's vision to develop a visual language, particular for state wards and adoptees who have not found certainty in the search for their origins. His underlying observations and critique seek to heal and bring to light the monsters and graces of survival from his perspective. Sulo, Yello and their printed paper and clay vessels, clothes, paper bags, drawings and animal friends tell layered stories of celebration, hope and wonder, alongside loss, grief and loneliness.

This current body of work grew out of a vision from learning about the Mongolian spot, a birth mark that was used in Aotearoa to determine a baby's level of desirability in being placed for adoption. Its more universal considerations are how social systems use categorisation to include or exclude people. These works explore how systems impact on people throughout their lives. In creating these works Tama used research, humor, observation and inclusion of the less desirable, narrative, found objects, imagination, lino, paper, ink, paint, blatancy and stealth all have a place.

About the Artist:

Tama tk Sharman - Artist/Printmaker was born in Otepoti/Dunedin Aotearoa in 1975. At age 13, Tama was among the youngest persons in the world to successfully steal a police car and remains proud of this achievement today.

He studied art and phys ed at high school. Expelled from the last skool that would take him in 1991, at 15 he hit the road and traveled extensively before beginning his formal training as an artist. He enrolled at Victoria University, obtaining a Diploma of Visual Arts in 2006 and 2009 he attended an intensive course in traditional Japanese woodblock printing at Nagasawa Art Park, Japan. He went on to receive a Bachelor in Fine Arts Printmaking with Honours from the Victorian Collage of the Arts in 2010.

Tama has exhibited regularly for the past thirteen years beginning with his first solo exhibition in 2006. In 2011, he represented Aotearoa/NZ in the World Plate and Print Art exhibition, South Korea. In 2012, he was awarded the Australian Print Council Commission. 2013, he exhibited in Melbourne Now and his Pacific Transformer series was acquired by National Gallery of Victoria. In 2017, Tama’s first short film Scratchings debuted at Tilde International Film Festival. 2018 was a massive year that began with him being awarded the MAAP Midsumma Australia Post Art Prize.