Reuben Paterson

Paterson's family comes from Matatā in the Bay of Plenty, but he grew up in Bucklands Beach in Auckland, where his father Louis Paterson was a landscaper and his mother Sue Foss enjoyed gardening.{{Cite web |title=Whakapapa: Get Down Upon Your Knees. Reuben Paterson |url=https://www.artgallery.org.nz/whakapapa-get-down-upon-your-knees-reuben-paterson |access-date=2023-02-25 |website=Tauranga Art Gallery}}{{Cite web |last=Catherall |first=Sarah |date=2015-09-29 |title=Glitter artist Reuben Paterson dazzles Wellington |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/72485822/glitter-artist-reuben-paterson-dazzles-wellington |access-date=2023-02-25 |website=Stuff |language=en}} He became interested in glitter as a medium in the 1990s when he was a student at Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland.{{Cite web |last=Fox |first=Rebecca |date=2017-03-30 |title=His glittering career |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/arts/his-glittering-career |access-date=2023-02-25 |website=Otago Daily Times |language=en}}

Paterson graduated from the University of Auckland in 1997 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts,{{Cite web |title=Graduation search results - The University of Auckland |url=https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/for/current-students/cs-academic-information/cs-graduation-information/cs-graduation-search-and-confirmation/cs-graduation-search-results.html |access-date=2023-02-28 |website=www.auckland.ac.nz}} and in the same year was one of three people awarded the Möet et Chandon Arts Fellowship to France, becoming the first Māori recipient and at the time the youngest recipient ever. The fellowship provided Paterson with a six-week stay in France and a chance to experience art in Europe.{{Cite book |title=Taiāwhio II: Contemporary Māori Artists, 18 New Conversations |publisher=Te Papa Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-909010-09-6 |location=Wellington, New Zealand}} After the fellowship, Paterson spent time travelling and lived in Bath, England for two years. He returned to New Zealand in 2000 and worked as a primary school teacher before becoming a full-time artist.

File:The Golden Bearing.jpg in New Plymouth, 2015]]

Paterson's father died two months after Paterson's return to New Zealand in 2000, and he created The wharenui that Dad built as a commemoration of his father. This work, which uses glitter, was included in an exhibition shown in Noumea as part of the Eighth Pacific Arts Festival.{{Cite book |url=https://tetuhi.art/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Reuben-Paterson-the-wharenui-that-dad-built-brochure-publication-2001_web.pdf |title=The wharenui that Dad built [pamphlet] |publisher=Te Tuhi The Mark |year=2000 |isbn=0908995164 |location=Manukau, New Zealand}}

He won the Wallace Arts Trust Development Award in 2005. In 2009 – 2010 Paterson exhibited at the Asia Pacific Triennial (APT6) in Brisbane and was honoured by having his work feature on the cover of art magazine Art & Australia.

Paterson became 'artist in residence' at New Plymouth's Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in 2013, and that year created The Golden Bearing, a life-size golden sculpture of a tree. He was inspired by his father's work as a landscaper.{{Cite web |last=Lewis |first=John |date=2022-05-25 |title=Spreading branches bearing gold |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/spreading-branches-bearing-gold |access-date=2023-02-25 |website=Otago Daily Times |language=en}} Five versions of the work have been created.

In 2014 ANZ Bank began creating 'GAYTMs': ATM machines covered in artworks supporting the Sydney Mardi Gras, and later the marriage equality bill.{{Cite web |title=Five lessons in innovation from GAYTMs |url=https://bluenotes.anz.com/posts/2014/10/five-lessons-in-innovation-from-gaytms |access-date=2023-02-25 |website=bluenotes.anz.com}} In 2015 Paterson, who is himself gay,Chumko, A., "[https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/131299015/all-that-glitters-major-reuben-paterson-exhibition-opens-in-wellington All that glitters: Major Reuben Paterson exhibition opens in Wellington], stuff.co.nz, 25 February 2023. Retrieved 13 December 2023. created a glitter-covered GAYTM in Ponsonby.{{Cite web |title=GayTM attacked by vandals |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/anz-bank-sad-over-ponsonby-gaytm-attack-by-vandals/BBSDAJ4NANID5XRGZWC3ETFQXA/ |access-date=2023-02-25 |website=The New Zealand Herald |language=en-NZ}}

In 2017, Paterson collaborated with Cook Islands tivaevae / tivaivai artist Tungane Broadbent in Today, Tomorrow and Yesterday, at Bergman Gallery, Rarotonga, Cook Islands. They collaborated again in 2022 for Nga Meka – Tui Kura in Aotearoa Art Fair,{{Cite web |date=2022-12-03 |title=Aotearoa Art Fair: A celebration of Pacific art |url=https://www.cookislandsnews.com/internal/national/features/culture/art/aotearoa-art-fair-a-celebration-of-pacific-art/ |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=Cook Islands News |language=en}} and again in 2023 for Nga Meka – Tui Kura (Epilogue), Bergman Gallery, Rarotonga, Cook Islands.{{Cite web |title=Nga Meka Tui Kura (epilogue) |url=https://artnow.nz/exhibitions/nga-meka-tui-kura-epilogue |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=Artnow |language=en}}

In 2022 Paterson was a judge at the National Contemporary Art Awards.{{Cite web |title=‘Red handed’ artwork wins $20,000 National Contemporary Art Award - Waikato Museum |url=https://waikatomuseum.co.nz/about-us/news/article/269/ |access-date=2023-02-26 |website=waikatomuseum.co.nz}}

Paterson has announced that he intends to move to New York, in May 2023, for more professional and personal freedom.{{Cite web |last=Chumko |first=André |date=2023-02-24 |title=All that glitters: Major Reuben Paterson exhibition opens in Wellington |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/131299015/all-that-glitters-major-reuben-paterson-exhibition-opens-in-wellington |access-date=2023-02-26 |website=Stuff |language=en}}

Paterson references his Scottish and Māori heritage by using paisley and koru designs in his works, and has said that he is inspired by “wallpaper, Hawaiian shirts, Dad’s ties and my kuia’s party dresses”. Grid designs are also used extensively. As a child, Paterson spent time at Piha, and he credits the sparkling black sand and sea there as an influence on his extensive use of glitter. As well as glitter, Paterson uses diamond dust and theatre foil in his works. Paterson has stated:

I think of how light is a visual metaphor for spiritual ideas, how religious art used light as a metaphor for the purity of saints and of the gods. The one thing that glitter does is reflect light. So using glitter is a modern interpretation of religious paintings that have informed art's evolution and history, and my response to all of that.

{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paterson, Reuben}}

Category:21st-century New Zealand artists

Category:1973 births

Category:21st-century New Zealand male artists

Category:New Zealand Māori artists

Category:Living people

Category:New Zealand gay artists

Category:21st-century New Zealand LGBTQ people