Taharaki Skyside
Fiona Pardington Representing Aotearoa New Zealand at the 61st Venice Biennale
9 May to 22 November 2026
Photo: Duncan Cole
Creative New Zealand has announced Fiona Pardington as the representative artist for the Aotearoa New Zealand Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale.
Born in 1961 in Auckland, Pardington is an award-winning photographer of Māori and Scottish descent. Her nearly five-decade-long practice revolves around the still-life genre, often highlighting taonga (treasured possessions) or objects held in institutional collections to probe themes of colonialism, cultural preservation, identity, and memory. Over the course of her career, Pardington has secured numerous accolades: aside from winning the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship (1996–97), she became the first New Zealand artist to be named a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Government in 2016.
Paradington’s Venice project, titled “Taharaki Skyside,” will expand on her 2024 exhibition at Auckland-based gallery Starkwhite, ”Te taha o te rangi / The edge of the heavens.” The latter highlighted the endemic manu (bird) species of Aotearoa New Zealand, which are venerated within Māori culture and mythology, yet under threat of extinction amid the intensifying climate crisis. Pardington’s project specifically focuses on taxidermied avians held in various museums across the region and in Australia, immortalizing the distinctive plumage and form of each subject through meticulously staged ornithological “portraits.” Blurring the boundaries between life and death, ephemerality and permanence, her images further examine the entangled histories of ethnographic taxonomy, cultural erosion, and environmental destruction.
ArtReviewVenice Biennale 2026 11 March 2026
https://www.webbs.co.nz/articles-and-videos/fiona-pardington-selected-for-venice-biennale
https://www.artasiapacific.com/news/aotearoa-new-zealand-reveals-artist-for-2026-venice-biennale/
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2026/03/fiona-pardington-taharaki-skyside-new-zealand-birds-museums/
Fiona Pardington, Kākā kura, Nestor meridionalis septentrionalis, colour morph, Rangataua, Tongariro, 2025, pigment inks on Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag, 176 × 140 cm. Courtesy the artist and collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (OR. 001127)