Sponsored in part by the Janus Foundation, Creative New Zealand Craft/Art Object Fellowship and US Bank.

STAR POWER is Kipa\'s first major museum exhibition in the United States. Pushing the boundaries of the concept of indigenous art, Kipa has reclaimed the ancient tiki form from "its degeneration into mass production by the non-Maori." He achieves this through using traditional forms in combination with modern materials such as Corian. This house is a self-portrait conceived as a Maori Whare Whakairo, a house for the ancestors. "In a sense," writes Kipa, "the Whare Whakairo represents both the angst and the hope of the Maori. The house acutely manifests this tension for me. I have broken with the norms of conventions by representing myself in place of the ancestors."

Rangi Kipa was born in New Zealand in 1966 and currently lives and works in Whakatane. He studied at the Maraeroa Carving School, Porirua, New Zealand before gaining a Master\'s degree in Maori Visual Arts from Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand. Kipa has exhibited at Spirit Wrestler Gallery, Vancouver, Canada; Auckland City Art Gallery, New Zealand; Palau & Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand; Pataka Tour, New Zealand and United States; and Wellington City Art Gallery, New Zealand.

Above: Rangi Kipa, Radiare (detail), 2007, Wood, Corian, Autopaint. Dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist and Goff + Rosenthal, New York, NY. Photo by Grant Leighton.