Sandy Adsett: Toi Koru

Published by Pātaka Art+Museum on the occasion of the lifetime retrospective survey exhibition of paintings by Dr Sandy Adsett, Toi Koru features essays by the curator Reuben Friend, with additional contributions by Prof Robert Jahnke, Tina Kuckkahn and Dr David Butts on the important artistic legacy and curatorial impact of Dr Adsett’s work as an artist, curator and educator. The publication features full page colour images of artworks created over 50 years of art practice.

Published, January 2021 by Pātaka Art+Museum. Hardback, 160 page, ISBN 9780473576172.

Ka Mua, Ka Muri

Celebrating 25 years of exhibitions and collecting at Pātaka Art+Museum, Ka Mua, Ka Muri features essays by past Pātaka Art+Museum Directors, Darcy Nicholas, Helen Kedgley, Reuben Friend and the current Director Ana Sciascia. The publication highlights 25 significant exhibitions and 25 objects from the museum collection, selected from over 800 past exhibitions and 22,000 collection objects.

Published 2023 by Pātaka Art+Museum. Hardback, 208 pages. ISBN 978-1-7386090-00.

naadohbii: to draw water

This full colour exhibition catalogue features the artworks of 20 artists from Canada, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, with curatorial text by the curators Jaimie Isaac, Reuben Friend, Kimberley Moulton and Ioana Gordon-Smith. The exhibition illustrates an axis of solidarity between Indigenous nations across the globe around environmental, political, and cultural relationships to water.

Published 2022 by Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq, Canada. Paperback, 144 pages, ISBN 9781773070063.

Becoming Our Future: Global Indigenous Curatorial Practice

Exploring Indigenous frameworks for curatorial practice in North America, Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific, the essay He Whare Toi, He Whare Whakaruruhau by Reuben Friend unpacks Māori curatorial frameworks developed by Māori contemporary artists in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

Edited by Dr Julie Nagam, Carly Lane, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Becoming Our Future: Global Indigenous Curatorial Practice includes essays from Reuben Friend, Nigel Borell, Freja Carmichael, Karl Chitham, Nici Cumpston, Léuli Eshraghi, Jarita Greyeyes, Ioana Gordon-Smith, Dr. Heather Igloliorte, Jaimie Isaac, Cathy Mattes, Kimberley Moulton, Lisa Myers, Dr. Jolene Rickard, Josh Tengan, and Daina Warren.

Published 2020, ARP Books, Canada. Paperback, 240 pages, ISBN 9781927886229.

Lagoonscapes: Bodies of Water

Fluidity and Indigenous Curatorial Praxis is an essay contributed to Lagoonscapes Volume 3 by Reuben Friend about a number of recent international contemporary art exhibitions that have explored Indigenous relationships to water and water sovereignty in the years during and since the COVID-19 pandemic. This essay reflects on the curatorial frameworks of these exhibitions and unpacks some of the geopolitical pressures informing and, at times, compromising Indigenous participation in these events and discussions.

Published December 2023 as an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) by the Venice Journal of Environmental Humanities, Edizoni Ca’Foscari. © 2023 Reuben Friend.

Our Voices II : The DE-colonial Project

In this second publication on North American, Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand Indigenous art, architecture and design, Friend’s essay entitled The Whare Māori and Digital Ontological Praxis reviewed a series of recent exhibitions in Aotearoa New Zealand and Canada that explored the application of customary Māori art and curatorial frameworks within new and experimental emerging digital media practices.

Published 2021, ORO Editions. Edited by Rebecca Kiddle, Kevin O’Brien, and Luugigyoo Patrick Stewart. Paperback, 256 pages, ISBN 9781943532568.

Pan Austro Nesian

Published on the occasion of the the 2021 Pan Austro Nesian festival and exhibition at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts in Taiwan, the exhibition catalogue featured essays by lead curators, Dr Yulin Lee Director KMFA, Zara Stanhope and Reuben Friend.

Friend’s essay The Journey Continues: New Currents in Oceanic Art looks at the trajectory of contemporary Pacific art in Aotearoa New Zealand, reflecting on the work of senior Pacific curators and academics Jim Vivieaere, Albert Wendt, Teresia Teaiwa, Epeli Hau’ofa and Peter Brunt.

Published June 2021, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan. Paperback, 255 pages.

Urgent Moments

Urgent Moments: Art and social change: The Letting Space projects 2010–2020 by public art curatorial collective Letting Space looks back at their history of brokering spaces for artists to act radically and engage in social art practice outside the sterile corporatized walls of the art gallery.

The essay contribution by Reuben Friend Art or Community Service reflects on Porirua edition of the Transitional Economic Zone of Aotearoa [TEZA] project where vacant store fronts are transformed into venues of social art practice, questioning the line between art and activism.

Edited by Mark Amery, Amber Clausner and Sophie Jerram. Published by Massey University Press, 2023. Paperback, 352 pages, ISBN 9781991016461.

Wayne Youle: 20/20

Published by Pātaka Art+Museum on the twenty year anniversary of Wayne Youle’s first ever art exhibition at a then newly opened Pātaka Art Gallery and Museum in Porirua, this exhibition catalogue features essays by Pātaka Director Reuben Friend and Christchurch Art Gallery Curator Lara Strongman looking back at two decades of focused art practice that has established Youle with a significant reputation as one of our nation’s leading contemporary artists.

Published 2020 by Pātaka Art+Museum with the support of {Suite} Gallery, the Deane Endowment Trust, Maud&Miller Barristers and Solicitors, and the Pātaka Foundation. Edited by Reuben Friend. Hardback, 104 pages.

Wi Taepa: Retrospective

First published in 2016 by Pātaka Art+Museum, and revised by Auckland Art Gallery in 2018, this exhibition catalogue publication marks the first major retrospective survey exhibition of uku (clay) vessels and sculptures by Māori whakairo and ceramic artist Wi Taepa. The second edition features full page colour slides and essays by the exhibition curators Reuben Friend Director of Pātaka Art+Museum and Auckland Art Gallery Curator Māori Nigel Borrell, with introductions by Elizabeth Ellis.

Published 2016 by Pātaka Art+Museum, and revised in 2018 by Auckland Art Gallery. Edited by Clare McIntosh. Edition one: Paperback, 46 pages. Edition two: Paperback, 72 pages.

Oceania: Imagining the Pacific

Published on the occasion of the exhibition Oceania at City Gallery Wellington and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 6 August-6 November 2011. Comprising two complementary exhibitions of Māori and Tāngata Moana taonga at Te Papa and contemporary works of art at City Gallery, the publication features an introduction by City Gallery Director Paula Savage, with essays by Gregory O'Brien, Nicholas Thomas, Abby Cunnane and Reuben Friend. Friend’s essay Reimaging Oceania explores the exposure of imagined Western visions of Pacific cultures in the art of Greg Semu, Yuki Kihara, Lisa Reihana and Edith Amituana'i.

Published 2011 by City Gallery Wellington | Te Whare Toi. Paperback, 79 pages, ISBN 095827049X.