Emiko Sheehan

INFO

NameEmiko Sheehan (she/her)
Born1993
Country of BirthAotearoa
Place of ResidenceKirikiriroa Hamilton
EthnicitiesJapanese, Māori (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Kahu Ngāti Unu, Waikato Tainui, Raukawa, Tūwharetoa)
ArtformVisual arts, Socially engaged art
Decades Active2010s, 2020s

ABOUT

Emiko Sheehan is an artist who works across different forms and materials: drawing, video, harakeke, poetry and performance. Seeing her art-making as part of a larger process of re-indigenisation, Sheehan seeks to bring her everyday life into harmony with her art practice and reconnect with whakapapa and whenua through her work.

Sheehan lives in Waikato. In 2023, she was one of ten artists who were selected for Whiria Te Tāngata, a 12-month programme run by Creative Waikato. Led by artist and curator Leafā Wilson, the programme offered the artists a full-time stipend, support, and mentorship. Through Creative Waikato, Sheehan runs a programme called Wāwāhi Tahā, which provides a nurturing creative space for mothers and babies to make art and connect with te taiao (the natural world). The Waikato is Sheehan’s tūrangawaewae — she grew up in Kirkiriroa Hamilton and has hapū links to Te Kuiti, Te Awamutu and Taupiri.

In 2014, before beginning university, Sheehan spent a year in Japan, working on a farm and immersing herself in Japanese language and culture. Sheehan’s father is Japanese, and in some of her early work, she developed a “moonchild / half diasporic Japanese / Maniapoto living away from home” persona, in response to the fatigue of searching for an “authentic self”.

After graduating from Massey University with a BFA (Hons) in 2019, Sheehan lived in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, before relocating to Waikato during the 2021 COVID-19 lockdown.

LINKS

Key works / presentations

2023 — IOWERĀ:KAHRE/HAU MARANGAI, Hoea! Gallery, Tairāwhiti

2021 — Ā muri Atu/In the future, Ramp Gallery, Kirikiriroa

2020 — Hauhake, Caravannex, Objectspace, Tāmaki Makaurau, curated by Jade Townsend

Key awards

2023 — Whiria Te Tangata, Creative Waikato, artist in residence

2021 — Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture awards: finalist and honorable mention

Last updated: 5 March 2024 Suggest an Edit

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OTHER PHOTOS AND Ephemera

An Instagram post showing a photo of an exhibition with a hanging banner and painted mural, mothers and children in the room

Closing of Wāwahi Tahā at Ramp Gallery, January 2024

Sourced from Leafa Wilson's Instagram page

An Instagram post showing a photo of an exhibition with artworks on plinths and a small crowd gathered to hear Emiko Sheehan speak

Emiko Sheehan speaking at the closing of Wāwahi Tahā at Ramp Gallery, January 2024

Sourced from Leafa Wilson's Instagram page