Simon Kaan

Simon Kaan (Ngāi Tahu, Chinese, Pākeha, b.1971) is a celebrated painter and print maker who possesses a refined visual language developed over decades, intrinsically tied to his sense of personal genealogy. His practice considers the implications of the intermingling of the Ngāi Tahu and Chinese elements of his heritage, through iconography and processes of making. In a practice that includes painting, printmaking and performance, Kaan is concerned with identity, and with the physical and metaphysical notions of space and time.

Kaan was the first recipient of the Asia:NZ/Creative New Zealand (CNZ) artists residency at Beijing’s Red Gate Gallery. The artist often collaborates and exhibits with celebrated New Zealand ceramicist Wi Te Tau Pirika Taepa ONZM (b. 1946, Pōneke Wellington) and was recently featured on the programme ‘Fine Arts from ASIA: Art Stories In Aotearoa’ with Radio New Zealand, alongside sculptor Yona Lee and interdisciplinary artist Yuki Kihara.

'There has been much written about Simon Kaan’s beautifully articulated printed and painted scapes. His soft focus, tranquil palette and finely stacked horizons, peppered with highly emotive and delicately rendered symbols and icons, have become a well-known and much-loved addition to the New Zealand art canon. But there is also a sense that there is something undisclosed: the strands of other, more heavily loaded ideas lurking just below the surface of his serene visions of land and sea.' - Karl Chitham (Ngā Puhi, Te Uriroroi), Director, Dowse Art Museum, Pōneke Wellington.

Kaan’s artworks are held in the collection of the Māori Select Committee Rooms, Parliament, Pōneke Wellington; The University of Waikato, Kirikiriroa Hamilton, Lincoln University Art Collection. Between 2023 and 2024 his worksTe Au I & Te Au II, and Te Au series I - IX were acquired for the permanent collection at The Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū. Public commissions include Te Aika, Simon Kaan and Rachael Rakena, 2021, Te Pae convention centre, Otautahi Christchurch, SCAPE Public Art Trust, and the EBB Hotel Façade, Otepoti Dunedin, 2021.

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