Must-See Exhibitions During Sydney Contemporary and Beyond

Yuki Kihara: Paradise Camp
Powerhouse Museum
24 March–31 December 2023

Expect: theatrical images that complicate Paul Gauguin’s interpretations of the Pacific and its peoples with a contemporary imaging of cultural awareness and inclusive difference.

First shown at the New Zealand Pavilion of the 2022 Venice Biennale, Yuki Kihara’s critically acclaimed exhibition continues its Australian presentation with a suite of 12 photographs that interrogate gender roles in their re-working of French Post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin’s depictions of Pacific Islanders.

Kihara told curator Natalie King for Ocula Magazine in 2022, ‘Just as Gauguin used Sāmoa as source material, disguised with Māohi titles, I did the reverse by repurposing his paintings created during his time in French Polynesia between 1891 and 1903.’