PEPI-JOY GILGEN
RONGOMAI GRBIC-HOSKINS
MAIOHA KARA

KĀ MURA

30 October - 22 November 2025

ARTOR, 12 Fitzroy St, Ponsonby, Tāmaki Makaurau

hello@artor.nz

Kā Mura; to be alight, to burn, to blaze.

We tossed around a few names in a group chat over a couple of weeks. When we landed on Kā Mura, Pepi-Joy commented that it reminded her of mura o te ahi — being under the heat, or under pressure — which she joked was her constant state of existence while raising tamariki and studying.

Mura o te ahi feels like an apt description of the world right now — socially, politically, environmentally; the list goes on. In recent years, we’ve seen creative practice come under renewed pressure from a government that seems to take issue with culture, the arts, and, with young people, too. To be a maker in this time requires grit to keep moving against the current, an ongoing act of assertion and endurance. 

People often describe the need to create as a kind of burning — to be alight with ideas. Kā Mura: a spark, a flicker, a bright flame in what can feel like an increasingly dull world. Whether it’s embracing customary practices that are whispered across generations; the joy of playful, sculptural adornment grounded in tactility and whakapapa; or the pooling of mapped glitter, echoing cycles and cosmic connection. Each practice glows, celebrating the sharing and extending of knowledge systems.

This show came together quickly, sparked among friends. There’s something I like about that — a spirited, intuitive approach to making a show, under pressure with warmth and immediacy

Maioha Kara, Hana 2025
Birch, stain, glitter 
40.5 x 80 x 3.7 cm

NZD $4,200.00  Incl. GST.     Enquire

Maioha Kara, Atarau 2025
Birch, stain, glitter 
110.1 x 110.1 x 3.7 cm

NZD $8,800.00  Incl. GST.     Enquire

Rongomai Grbic-Hoskins, Ngā Tai Hirihiri 2025
Aute (barkcloth/paper mulberry/broussonetia papyrifera), Muka (Phormium tenax cordage), Kōkōwai (red ochre pigment, iron oxide - from Aotearoa), 'Lepo Poni - (ochre pigment – from Maui, Hawaiʻi)
350 x 520 mm  

NZD $ 1,650.00 Incl. GST.     Enquire

Maioha Kara (Ngāti Koroki Kahukura, Ngāti Tipa, Te Ātihaunui-a-Pāpārangi, Tūhourangi, Te Whānau a Hinetapora, Kuki Airani) draws on concepts and geometries found within Te Ao Māori. Kara’s experimental approach to form, colour, material, and pattern explores the connections between people and our natural environments. A focus on cycles found within both patterns and nature underpins Kara’s holistic interest in the interconnection of all things, highlighting mauri and tracing connections back to the very beginnings of creation.

Maioha is a Rotorua-based artist currently completing her PhD at Massey University. In 2024, Kara opened her first public solo exhibition, In Good Relation, at Pataka Art+Museum, which then travelled to Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga, Hastings Art Gallery. Kara’s work has been shown at Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and The Dowse Art Museum, and is held within public and private collections across Aotearoa.

Maioha Kara, Courtesy of Laree Payne Gallery.

Rongomai Grbic-Hoskins (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi, Ngātiwai) is an artist and student of Māori aute, raised in Tāmaki Makaurau. Her practice is shaped by the understanding of the world as dynamic whakapapa relations. She sees relational engagement with non-human others — such as the natural materials that form her work — as generative. This understanding is bound by the underpinning concepts and processes of tapu, mauri, utu, and mana, encompassed by Te Ao Māori.

Aute, as a practice, is the legacy of tūpuna. Formed from the bast of the paper mulberry tree, its fibres both form and carry part of the genealogical networks that stretch across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa. Aute embodies the knowledge passed down through generations of women who have cultivated, crafted, and revered this sacred cloth. While the transmission of barkcloth-making in Aotearoa was interrupted, aute has persisted in the collective consciousness of Māori. This endurance survives through te reo, kōrero tuku iho (oral histories), and whakapapa.

Rongomai’s engagement with aute is presented not as conclusive, but as an ongoing and evolving relationship with the cloth. Her practice explores aute as both a vessel for knowledge and a living connector — linking us to the rising and falling rhythms of the natural world and to one another. As kō (natural ochre pigments) and muka fibres converge in each cloth, they find grounding in Aotearoa.

Pepi-Joy Gilgen (Waikato, Ngāti Porou, Kāi tahu) Gilgen’s practice is ignited by the way her tamariki see the world — with wonder, instinct, and unfiltered joy. Their gestures, questions, and rhythms shape the textures of her work. Through textiles, she translates their way of being into forms that invite touch, movement, and closeness.

These pieces are a tactile offering — a call to reconnect with the sensory, the relational, and the childlike. They ignite not only ideas, but feeling. Her contribution to this exhibition honours the Tohunga Whakaotirangi, who carried kūmara and hue aboard the Tainui waka — seeds of sustenance, symbols of care. These taonga, embodied in textile form, are inspired by her legacy and guided by her own tamariki, whose hands and hearts shape her practice. This reflects her responsibility as a mother to nurture her children.

Through wearable and tactile pieces, Pepi-Joy explores the role of te reo Māori and kōrero tuku iho in nurturing the next generation. These works are not static objects; they are tools for storytelling, learning, and connection. They invite all who engage with them to feel the textures of whakapapa, to trace the threads of migration, motherhood, and memory.

In Kā Mura, Pepi-Joy offers a tactile archive of nourishment, both physical and cultural — a gentle ignition of language and lineage.

Pepi-Joy has just completed Te Tohu Paetahi at The University of Waikato to strengthen her reo and
support her role as a mother and storyteller. Her pieces have been shown with 'hoa haere i te ao i te pō' at Aotearoa Art Fair 2025, Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award 2025 - currently touring nationwide, Pohewa Pāhewa at Object Space and the Waawaahi Tahaa collective exhibition at Ramp gallery.