31 Oct 2021

Kelcy Taratoa - behind the colourful pictures

From Standing Room Only, 2:25 pm on 31 October 2021

Tauranga-based artist Kelcy Taratoa is one of a handful of contemporary Kiwi artists whose work's embedded in the school curriculum. It's not surprising. His comic book-inspired painting style and bright palette appeal to young people anyway. But when they delve a bit deeper they discover there's real depth behind the striking images. Art writer Dr Warren Feeney has worked with Kelcy and other admirers of his work to produce a new bilingual book named after one of the artists' best known bodies of work Who Am I? …Episode 001 Kelcy Taratoa talks to Lynn Freeman about his upbringing and art education as well as his influences, his approach to painting, and how he's dared to go in a different direction in recent years.