Wayne Youle


Wayne Youle is a New Zealand artist of Ngapuhi, Ngati Whakaeke and Ngati Pakeha descent. His bicultural heritage is reflected in his work, addressing issues of identity, race and the commodification of cultural symbols. He often uses humour to make his point. Youle's work is held in national museums and public galleries. He lives and works in Amberley, New Zealand.

Career, themes and style

In 1999, Youle received a Bachelor of Design, majoring in typography, from Wellington Polytechnic Design School, New Zealand. His graduate show featured the words cultural blindness test in a series of diminishing letters like those on an optician's chart. His work incorporates clean lines, shapes, symbols and typography, repetition and recurrent motifs using a variety of materials and new technologies in 3D objects, sculpture, installation, graphite and ink drawings, photography, painting and tattooing.
Youle's works explore historical and current perceptions of Maori culture to question stereotypes and cultural traditions. For example, in Twelve Shades of Bullshit, silhouettes have been created in various shades of brown from illustrations of Maori drawn by early European explorers and artists. The work explores historical representations of Maori in New Zealand art and also comment on the various skin colours of contemporary Maori after 160 years of intermarriage.
Since 2013, Youle has created a number of brightly coloured, stencil-like portraits. Originally based on existing photographs of deceased New Zealand artists, the series has expanded to include portraits of New Zealand and international characters living, historical and fictional. Among those depicted include Frances Hodgkins, Ralph Hotere, Len Lye, Colin McCahon, Damien Hirst, Captain James Cook, Michael King, Magic Johnson, E.T. and Michael Jackson. A catalogue illustrating a selection of the portraits was released by Publishing in 2015. This catalogue accompanied Youle's solo presentation '9:54 | 3:49' with Gallery at Sydney Contemporary 2015, where portraits of Stephen Hawking, Lindy Chamberlain and Sidney Nolan were exhibited.
Youle references the influence of other New Zealand artists in his work including Gordon Walters, Billy Apple, Shane Cotton, Peter Robinson, Ronnie van Hout and Michael Parekowhai, and Ricky Swallow of Australia.

Symbols

Skulls

Youle's work features skulls based on tattoo designs, symbols of identification and belonging, for example, to gangs. Youle was inspired by his grandfather's tattoos, identifying him as a sailor. He also studies the historical origins and expressions of ta moko. The head is tapu in Maori culture. In Skully Pops Youle depicts mokomokai, as inviting, bright coloured lollies that at the same time are an anathema to eat.

Koru

The koru motif depicts the shape of the unfurling silver fern. In The Icon 500, Youle invited controversy by adapting the koru to the swastika to illustrate the origin of the swastika as a symbol of good will and challenge the way audiences can bring negative references with them. He called the work, This is not a swastika nor is it a Walters.

Hei Tiki

Youle's Often Liked, Occasionally Beaten, consisting of multi-coloured resin tiki on lollipop sticks, comments on the commercialisation of Maori taonga, mass production of Maori souvenirs and the cultural appropriation of Maori art.. The title of the work is a political play on the local Frosty Boy ice cream marketing catchphrase, Often liked, never beaten while alluding to the social issue of family violence.

Artist residences

In 2010, Youle was the recipient of the Rita Angus Artist Residency hosted by the Wellington Institute of Technology's School of Creative Technologies. His exhibition One Step Forward, One Step Back was undertaken during this time. In various media, Youle studied the relationship between the Maori and the Pakeha, focussing on the effect of the introduction of technology on the Maori, specifically the tribes of the Wellington region.
In 2011, Youle was selected as Wellesley College's first artist-in-residence. During his month at Wellesley in Days Bay, Wellington, he created 13 paintings and a series of sculptures. He also made a number of initiatives to raise primary school aged students creative interests.
In 2012, Youle was awarded the SCAPE/Artspace Christchurch Artist Residency at the Artspace Visual arts centre, Sydney. This body of work showcases Youle's pop-artist style depicting an array of subject matter for example, historical relations with Sydney's indigenous population, skulls, half naked men and women's breasts. Using strips of sign vinyl and dot painting on the surfaces of a range of found photographs, historic paintings and other ephemera, the works were presented in You be Fact, I Be Fiction.

Selected works

Youle has works in collections including: