Two works by New Zealand artist Graham Percy (1938–2008): Two Kiwis in Paris and A Kiwi in Venice are on show in our stairwell.
Percy was born in Stratford, Taranaki and before he left New Zealand for London in the mid-1960s, was a pivotal figure in the design and illustration of the New Zealand School Journal, and was familiar with many New Zealand artists of the time. Working in London, he illustrated over 100 books and became a hugely respected artist, illustrator and typographer. At the same time he produced a remarkable body of his own independent art before his untimely death in 2008, much of it referring back to his early life growing up in New Zealand.
These works were gifted to Toi MAHARA by the Graham Percy Trust following the exhibition, A Micronaut in the Wide World, The Imaginative Life and Times of Graham Percy curated by Gregory O’Brien which Mahara hosted at the conclusion of its hugely popular national tour of 21 venues in 2015. The exhibition featured 62 large and medium scale drawings including a suite of anthropomorphic kiwis who travel around the world and through time and embody the persona of the expatriate New Zealand artist.