John Pule’s prints and paintings combine cryptic symbols of mythology and history. The artist weaves images of fish, bird-like creatures and other motifs adapted from European and Pacific cultures into tapestry-like compositions. Evocative of tapa cloth, the traditional bark cloth formerly used for exchange and everyday use among the region’s indigenous peoples, these works embody a very personal response to the history of colonization in the Pacific Islands.

John Pule (b. 1962, New Zealand) is a visual artist, novelist and poet. Born in the small Polynesian island of Niue, and now resident in Auckland, New Zealand, he embodies cross-cultural creative exchange across the Pacific region. Since 1991 Pule has exhibited extensively in the Pacific and across Asia. The author of two published novels and several volumes of poetry, he was honored in 2004 with the Laureate Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand.