Every painting has its own journey into being. While that process is unique to each artist, it most often unfolds within the privacy of the studio, away from public view. On Saturday 1 August, visitors were offered a rare opportunity to witness this creative process unfold in real time, as Neil Ieremia created a kinetic painting in response to improvised movement by three dancers from Black Grace Dance Company, among the sculptural works of Anton Forde.
Over the course of an hour, the painting emerged through a dynamic exchange between movement and mark-making. Music, gesture, material, audience and space became active participants in the creation of the work, generating an atmosphere charged with energy, anticipation and dialogue. The resulting painting became an enduring record of a shared moment - a visual expression of the connection between body, memory and movement.
Presented as part of the pop-up exhibition Whanake, sponsored by Aalto Paint and featuring Forde and Ieremia, the performance revealed the powerful relationship between visual art and dance, where the physicality of the moving body was translated into colour, texture, and form.
Neil Ieremia ONZM is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most accomplished choreographers, creative leaders and interdisciplinary artists. Of Samoan heritage and raised in Porirua, Ieremia is the founder and artistic director of Black Grace, the internationally celebrated contemporary dance company he established in 1995.
Across more than three decades, Ieremia has transformed contemporary movement in the Pacific, bringing together the physical intensity of dance with the storytelling traditions, rhythms and embodied knowledge of Moana cultures. His choreography explores themes of ancestry, masculinity, spirituality and belonging, creating works that are both deeply personal and culturally resonant.
Renowned for performances of extraordinary athleticism, emotional depth and cultural significance, Ieremia’s work has been presented internationally at major institutions and festivals including Jacob’s Pillow, New York’s 42nd Street, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Sharjah Biennial and the Aichi Triennale.
In recent years, Ieremia has expanded his creative practice beyond choreography, developing what he describes as “kinetic paintings” - works that translate the three-dimensional experience of movement into colour, gesture and abstraction. Emerging from the spontaneous energy of dance, these paintings operate as visual scores, capturing the relationship between motion, memory and emotion.
The vivid palettes within Ieremia’s paintings are deeply connected to personal and cultural histories, drawing inspiration from the floral patterns of his mother’s muʻumuʻu, his father’s aloha shirts, tropical landscapes and the geometric language of traditional tatau. Through these references, the works become expressions of identity, heritage and connection.
Working between choreography and painting, Ieremia’s practice is grounded in storytelling as a form of cultural transmission. Whether through bodies in motion or paint suspended in gesture, his work continues to expand the possibilities of visual and performative language, creating spaces where ancestry, identity and transformation can be experienced.
The Anton Forde × Neil Ieremia performance offered a rare glimpse into this evolving practice - a moment where dance became painting, painting became movement, and a shared creative experience was transformed into a lasting artwork.
