Paul Hartigan b. 1953

Auckland-based contemporary artist Paul Hartigan is New Zealand’s leading proponent of neon art. He is also one of New Zealand’s most significant makers of public art, widely recognised for his large-scale public light commissions, which have enhanced many of its urban spaces.

His spectacular neon monochrome Colony (2004), commissioned by the University of Auckland for the Faculty of Engineering on Symonds Street, was awarded Best Public Sculpture, Metro Magazine Awards in 2006.

Prior to Colony Hartigan was commissioned by Orion NZ Ltd in 2001 to transform the public face of an electricity substation in central Christchurch. Nebula Orion is the result, a large neon work that survived the earthquake of 2011 and continues to operate today.

Other major public installation include Pathfinder (1997), on the façade of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, Whipping the Wind (1988), located on a prominent corner of Lambton Quay in Wellington, near the Beehive, and Signal-Echo (2001), on the New Lynn Community Centre in West Auckland.

All these works demonstrate an intelligent and responsive engagement with the individual requirements of each site, and the architecture with which they interface. Each of these works is integrated with and extends the environment that hosts it, becoming a vital addition to not only the store of public art in each place, but to the streetscape, to the city’s amenities and its cultural wealth.

These grand installations aptly demonstrate both Hartigan’s adept artistic vision and the flexibility of the neon medium. Though respectful of neon’s history as a signage medium, Hartigan is not restricted by it, and uses this most urban of art media to create conceptually successful, publicly accessible installations that work day and night.