Born in Rotorua in 1952, Ian George is a prominent painter,
carver and educator of Cook Island descent who has been exhibiting
professionally in both New Zealand and internationally for over
twenty years. George graduated with a Masters of Fine Arts from
Elam School of Art at the University of Auckland.
A founding member of the Cook Island Arts Association and
Chairman of the Tautai Pacific Art Trust, George has been
instrumental in the promotion of Pacific Art at both national and
international level. In 1988, George relocated to Rarotonga
to explore his family's Cook Island heritage and to re-establish
the art department at the national college, Tereora, before
returning to New Zealand in 1995 to oversee the art department at
Hillary College in Otara. In 1998, he curated Paringa Ou,
the first major exhibition of contemporary art by Cook Island
artists residing in New Zealand, which travelled to the National
Museum in Fiji and was shown at the Fisher Gallery in Auckland in
1999. In 2002, George returned permanently to the island of
Rarotonga to take up the position of Visual Arts Adviser for the
Ministry of Education and lecturer at the Cook Islands Teachers
College.
As an exponent of the contemporary Pacific style, George's
work
implements the bold colour and stylized motifs typical of
Pacific art,using these attributes as a vehicle for the more
political themes of cultural imperialism, the loss of cultural
control and the international dispersal of indigenous cultural
artefacts. George's work frequently refers to Cook
Island's totems and guardians, particularly the symbol of the
Tangaroa, the Cook Island's God of the Sea and Creation, which is
used as protection on inter-island voyages. These totems represent
the necessity of protecting cultural heritage, and further the
image of the artist as cultural warrior - defender of the Cook
Island's cultural tradition.
As George affirms, "the art I have made over the years has been
a personal journey where I have been reclaiming and reaffirming my
identity as an artist of Cooks descent. I continue the traditions
of our ariki and use the painted and sculptured form to
tell the histories, spiritual beliefs and experiences of Cook
Island peoples, past, present, future".
George has exhibited widely in New Zealand and the Pacific
Islands and his work is held in private and public collections in
both New Zealand and around the world.