Sofia Tekela-Smith (born 1970) is a New Zealand-Rotuman artist specialising in jewellery and body adornments. Her work is held in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum New York

Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki is the principal public gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. It has the most extensive collection of national and international art in New Zealand and frequently hosts travelling international exhibitions. Set be ...

and

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. Usually known as Te Papa ( Māori for ' the treasure box'), it opened in 1998 after the merging of the National Museum of New Zealand ...

Life

Tekela-Smith was born in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

, New Zealand, in 1970 to Meriama Sauitu, who was from the island of

Rotuma Rotuma () is a self-governing heptarchy, generally designated a Local government in Fiji, dependency of Fiji. Rotuma commonly refers to the Rotuma Island, the only permanently inhabited and by far the largest of all the islands in the Rotuma Gro ...

, and John Smith, from

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Scotland. Tekela-Smith and her brother were raised on Rotuma by their maternal grandmother Mue Tekela until her death in the early 1980s, when they returned to Auckland to live with their mother. Tekela-Smith's jewellery uses traditional materials such as bone, shell and stone. She first exhibited in 1993 in ''Tufa'atasi'', a fashion show at the International Festival of the Arts in

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

. In 1996 her work was included in some group shows in Auckland and she also performed with Pacific Sisters at the Seventh South Pacific Festival of the Arts in Apia, Samoa. Her work has been exhibited in both solo and group shows including a show at Macleay Museum, University of Sydney in 1999; the 3rd New Zealand Jewellery Biennial at

Auckland Museum The Auckland War Memorial Museum (), also known as Auckland Museum, is one of New Zealand's most important museums and war memorials. Its neoclassical architecture, neoclassical building constructed in the 1920s and 1950s, stands on Observatory ...

in 2000; and the exhibition Pacific Adornment at Te Papa in 2002. Her jewellery has also been shown in Germany, at

Haus der Kulturen der Welt The Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), in English House of World Cultures, in Berlin is Germany's national center for the presentation and discussion of international contemporary arts, with a special focus on non-European cultures and societi ...

, and in New York.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:TEKELA-SMITH, SOFIA 1970 births Living people 21st-century New Zealand artists 21st-century New Zealand women artists Artists from Auckland New Zealand people of Rotuman descent New Zealand people of Scottish descent