Michael Te Rakato Parekōwhai (born 1968) is a New Zealand sculptor and a professor at the University of Auckland's Elam School of Fine Arts.

Parekōwhai makes a variety of work across a range of media that intersects sculpture and photography.

Sally Blundell, writing in the New Zealand Listener, says: Despite the range of Parekōwhai's output, his practice is linked throughout, both stylistically—a characteristic 'gloss' of high production value—and thematically.

Seemingly serene beneath their gleaming, factory-finished surfaces, Michael Parekowhai's sculptures and photographs are in fact supremely artful objects.

'Artful' not just because they're beautifully made...but also because they manage, with a combination of slyness, charm and audacity, to spring ambushes that leave you richer.