INFO
| Name | Emiko Sheehan (she/her) |
| Born | 1993 |
| Country of Birth | Aotearoa |
| Place of Residence | Kirikiriroa Hamilton |
| Ethnicities | Japanese, Māori (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Kahu Ngāti Unu, Waikato Tainui, Raukawa, Tūwharetoa) |
| Artform | Visual arts, Socially engaged art |
| Decades Active | 2010s, 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
