Fatu Feu'u

Fatu Akelei Feu'u ONZM (born 1946) is a noted Samoan painter from the village of Poutasi in the district of Falealili in Samoa.

Feu'u was part of the major group exhibition Le Folauga: the past coming forward – Contemporary Pacific Art from Aotearoa New Zealand, at the Auckland Museum.

Ole Alia outside the Massey Library and Leisure Centre [10] and Unititled [11] marks the entrance to the South Auckland suburb of Ōtara.

Feu'u was commissioned in 2007 by the Waitakere City Council to create an artwork representing the Pasifika community of West Auckland.

[12] While primarily a painter, Feu'u explores a range of other mediums including bronze, wood and stone sculpture, pottery design, lithographs, woodcuts and glass works (both stained and etched).

Feu'u's work is inspired by Polynesian art forms such as siapo (tapa cloth), tatau (tattoo), weaving, carving and ceremonial mask making.

His works frequently blend traditional and contemporary elements, incorporating a range of influences, inspirations, techniques and motifs from Samoa and Aotearoa and more generally from Euro-American to Pacific cultures.

The social structure of Samoan society is held together and actively maintained by an adherence to unwritten but understood cultural conventions embodied in fa'asamoa which binds family networks to traditional customs and ceremonies.

Folau (2009), a sculpture created for the Waitakere City Council civic centre on the Henderson railway station over-bridge in West Auckland
Feu'u's Untitled sculpture (2009) that welcomes people to Ōtara