Salome Tanuvasa is a New Zealand-born Tongan-Sāmoan artist whose practice responds directly to her environment and surroundings.

Certain shapes, colours and motifs recur and, by utilising what is around her in poetic and intuitive ways, the artist often speaks to the wider experience of Pacific people living in Aotearoa.

Salome works in a variety of media, including painting, drawing, textiles, photography and video. She is interested in speaking directly to the work of women like her mother, a seamstress, and her textile banner works – rather than being about ‘craft’ – are explorations of labour and joy within and beyond the domestic realm.

“I don’t like wasting materials, and I love challenging myself and seeking potential in mundane objects and offcuts. This gives me a new sense of hope every time.”

Salome completed her Masters degree at Elam School of Fine Arts in 2014 and she followed this with a Diploma in Secondary Teaching. She lives and works in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.

Artist Portrait: Sam Hartnett