Painting a Parallel World
Nigel Brown is New Zealand’s most “brilliant” and “prolific” living painter, according to Forbes contributor Michael Tobias. “Indeed, as an astute observer, thinker and painter focusing to large degree on Nature…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
King-Wall Named Principal Dancer
Ty King-Wall, 26, from Katikati has been named the latest – and youngest – 12th principal artist of the Australian Ballet. The company’s artistic director David McAllister said he was certain King-Wall would make a great…
Parisian Architectural Exhilaration
New Zealand-born architect Brendan MacFarlane, one half of Paris-based firm Jakob + MacFarlane, has had his hand in redesigning the French capital’s docks. The New York Times includes the Docks of Paris…
US Talkshow Appearances
“Our next guest has been compared to everyone from Amy Winehouse to Pink. Here to perform from her new CD, Gravel and Wine. All the way from New Zealand, please welcome Gin Wigmore …”…
Up the charts
“After penning tracks for acts including Christina Aguilera and Adam Lambert, New Zealand pop singer/songwriter Ginny Blackmore draws her first Billboard chart ink as an artist, with her debut single “Bones” entering Adult Pop…
Rangi Ruru schoolgirls win praise Polyfest performance
Forty-nine Rangi Ruru students, from mixed ethnicities, performed ientirely n the Samoan language at the recent 2013 Auckland Polyfest. Their performamce was ‘awesome’, ‘creative’ and ‘spellbinding,’ according to the Samoa Observer. ‘The vociferous applause…
Win on Strings at Windsor
A violinist from New Zealand, Benjamin Baker, 23, has won the Windsor Festival International Strings Competition (WFISC), held in the Waterloo Chamber of Windsor Castle, beating off finalists Marisol Lee from…
Adam Christopher – ‘the new future of science fiction’
New Zealand science fiction writer Adam Christopher is part of the ‘new future of science fiction,’ and an author who is breathing ‘fresh strength and vitality into science fiction and fantasy,’ according to…
Sneak Peek at Smaug
New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson has given his fans a sneak online preview of the next Hobbit installment, The Desolation of Smaug. Enthusiastic and barefoot, Jackson gave a little masterclass in Middle-earth filmmaking and…
All in One
“As much 50s rockabilly as dubstep devotee, there is no middle ground with the unique Mr Moon,” Gregor Hollerin writes for The Extra. New Zealand-born Moon’s debut album – Here’s Willy Moon…
Making a Splash
Sixteen-year-old Takapuna Grammar student Ella Yelich-O’Connor, who goes by the stage name Lorde, is included in the “March 2013 playlist: Sweat” on news site RYOT. “Cerebral, self-evaluative and weaving in and…
Strength to Strength
“Early signs suggest will bend toward something even more mysterious, beautiful, unsettling and satisfying than the mysterious, beautiful, unsettling, satisfying thing it is from the start,”…
On the Path to Self-sufficiency
Lead singer of Echo Park-based band NO Bradley Hanan Carter was just one of 2500 bands performing in Austin at this year’s SXSW festival hoping to snare the attention of approximately…
Everything is Not What it Seems
“It is typical of and visualise a pregnant 12-year-old girl walking into it up to her neck, the central image of what…
Novel Makes Longlist
Emily Perkins’ novel The Forrests has made the UK Women’s Prize for Fiction 2013 longlist. The prize, known formerly as the Orange Prize, honours a work of fiction written in English…
Wartime President
New Zealand-born actress Stephanie Paul stars as the as the Palin-esque president of the United States, out to save the world in the German-Finnish-Australian thriller Iron Sky, which premiered in Berlin on 11 February….
From Digital New York
Film director and writer New Zealander Anna Wilding writes on ‘Digital Hollywood and the Role of Content Creators’ for Herald de Paris. Having attended the recent Digital Hollywood Media Summit in New…
Bell Does Battle
Stuntwoman and actress New Zealander Zoë Bell, 34, headlines a “sly subversion of the women-in-prison genre”, Raze, which is playing in the ‘Midnight Section’ as part of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival,…
Making Music in Two Worlds
“Being a native of Auckland, singer-songwriter Simon Spire has had a foot in the door of two places since his transition to New York City,” The Aquarian Weekly’s Alessandra Donnelly writes….
Vinyl at Length
New Zealand sextet The Phoenix Foundation feature in the Guardian’s ‘New Music’ section this week, “return with a bittersweet first taster of their 80-minute long new album, Fandango.” “‘Damn the zeitgeist,…
Downton Appearance
World-renowned New Zealand soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is scheduled to appear on the popular British period soap opera, Downton Abbey. Producers of the show announced that Te Kanawa will appear as a guest…
Beyond the Edge
The epic story of the first known ascent of Mt Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay is to be made into a 3D feature by award-winning New Zealand documentary maker Leanne…
NZ film gurus headline a 3D Creative Summit
When the world’s first 3D Creative Summit wanted some film production gurus to speak, it went to New Zealand to get them. Amongst the Summits distinguished guests were Phil Oatley and Meetal Gokul…
Undeniably entertaining
New Zealand director Andrew Niccol’s latest science-fiction film, an adaptation of Twilight author Stephenie Meyer’s book The Host, has premiered in Los Angeles. Meyer specifically asked for Niccol to direct the film. On the…
Painting our Failings
New Zealand artist Mark Cross exhibited part of his collection produced over the past 15 years on the Florida-based Projeckt30 online gallery through March. In his statement Cross says: “Oscillating between…
Neilson Gets ‘Better and Better’
New Zealander Ruban Neilson’s playing and song writing just gets ‘better and better’, according to The Observer. Reviewing his group’s latest CD. Unknown Mortal Orchestra II, The Observer’s Kitty Empire praises the bands songs…
Black Grace Tours US
“Pittsburgh Dance Council’s commitment to finding cutting-edge dance took it halfway around the world for its new offering, the Black Grace company from New Zealand,” Mark Kanny writes for the Pittsburgh…
Making Melody in Bollywood
New Zealand musician and composer Mikey McCleary lives in Mumbai where he made his first brief impression with a commercial for Coca-Cola. McCleary, 44, also writes scores for Bollywood films. While new-age Hindi film…
Oscar-nominee’s Homes for Hobbits
Production designer on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Hastings-born Dan Hennah, features in an Architectural Digest 2013 Oscar nominees slideshow of the year’s best in set design. “Hennah, who trained as an architect and…
Harmony in China
World-renowned harmonica player New Zealander Brendan Power, 56, whose music can be heard in the 2008 film Atonement, has been touring China this month. Based in Britain for the past 20…
Keoghan Wastes No Time
“ Phil Keoghan of The Amazing Race has scuba dived with a dog, swilled the blood of a cobra and attended a nudist wedding,” Los Angeles Times blogger Mary Forgione writes. “And he…
Dogs on Film
Auckland-born photographer Paul Nathan’s new coffee table book, Couture Dogs captures bedazzled chihuahuas and Yorkshire terriers – the fashion plates of a special breed of dog owners who don’t mind spending a small…
Debut Accomplished and Unexpected
Auckland band Popstrangers have released their debut album Antipodes, an “accomplished and ambitious” record, according to London-based online music magazine musicOMH. “Throughout the album, Popstrangers never leave you feeling comfortable. Just when you think…
Commentaries on Nationality
Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Ruban Nielson, formerly of The Mint Chicks, attributes his former anonymity and general fame-shyness to, in part, being from New Zealand. Emerging on the scene via an obscure Bandcamp profile in…
Bale to Play Mountaineer
New Zealand mountaineer Rob Hall – who was killed climbing Mt Everest in 1996 aged 35 – will be played by American actor Christian Bale in a forthcoming film about the events which unfolded when two…
Outside of the Box
“The Ruby Suns is akin to other New Zealand bands in that its music doesn’t fit comfortably inside an established genre of music outside of pop,” according to Tom Murphy of Denver…
Prize at Berlinale
New Zealand-made film Shopping has won a prize at this year’s Berlinale. Shopping picked up one of the film festival’s second tier awards, the Grand Prix of the Generation 14+ international section for best…
NZ Film Brings Home the Prize
The New Zealand film Shopping, by directors Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland, has won The Grand Prix of the Generation 14plus for best feature film at the Berlin Film Festival. ‘An extremely compelling first…
Characters Screaming to Get Out
Award-winning actor New Zealander Jacob Rajan plays 17 different characters in the play Guru of Chai, which was recently performed Off-Broadway in New York. Rajan is the only actor in the play, which is…
Busting into Song
She’s only 26, but New Zealander Gin Wigmore has already acted alongside Daniel Craig and recorded in Frank Sinatra’s studio. You may already have heard the first single, a bawdy barrelhouse stomp called Man…
Alice Englert Almost Turned Down Starring Role
Kiwi actress Alice Englert almost turned down her role as ‘caster’ Lena Duchannes in Beautiful Creatures. Speaking to Eric Eisenberg, from Cinema Blend.com, Englert said that initially she ‘wasn’t interested. I heard…that it was…
Beautifully Scarce
Iranian-New Zealand artist Nabil Sabio Azadi’s travel book, For You The Traveller, is “probably the best guide book has ever seen.” “It is available in a strictly limited…
Glowing Gold at Grammys
New Zealand pop star Kimbra, 22, has won two Grammy Awards for record of the year and best pop duo/group with Australian musician Gotye. “Somebody That I Used To Know” was…
Campion Returns a Champion
New Zealand director Jane Campion makes a ‘haunting’ and near-perfect return to TV production, according to Andrew Pulver, The Guardian’s Film Editor. Campion’s return to high-end TV film-making comes with her directing the first…
Critical Mass
The Auckland University Press Anthology of New Zealand Literature edited by Jane Stafford and Mark Williams of Victoria University is reviewed by Peter Pierce for The Australian. He traverses the customary literary punch-ups that…
Class Written All Over It
“New product from Bright Star director Jane Campion is always welcome,” the Guardian says about the New Zealander’s six-part television series, Top of the Lake, which is showing in the Berlinale Special section at…
Campion a Cannes Jury President
Oscar-winning director Jane Campion has been named Short Film Jury president and head of the Cinefondation at the 66th Cannes Film Festival. Campion has strong ties with the festival, winning the short film Palme…
One of the Boys
New Zealander Jesse Peach is the director of a new production of Alan Bennett’s multi-award-winning play The History Boys, which opens at the Sydney Opera House on 8 February. Australian actor John…
Mythologising Mayhem
New Zealand band Unknown Mortal Orchestra is currently on tour – promoting their latest album II – in Europe before heading to the United States. Band member Oregon-based Ruben Neilsen, 32, formerly of…
Secrets of the Mask
New Zealand stuntwoman and actress Zoë Bell, 34, who recently starred as the mysterious masked tracker in Quentin Tarentino’s Django: Unchained, also appears as the Tall Witch in this year’s release Hansel and Gretel:…
Rocky Horror Turns Forty
New Zealand-raised actor Richard O’Brien, 70, writer of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, talks about family shame over working class roots, being transgender, the difficulty of born- again Christians, wanting to be a fairy…
Scary Script Tops US Box Office
Horror film Mama, co-written by Wellington-based novelist and scriptwriter Neil Cross, recently took the top spot at the North American box office. Mama earned $28.1 million from Friday through to Sunday at…
Home in the Clouds
Choreographer and former Footnote dancer Lisa Densem returns to New Zealand from Berlin, where she has been based for over a decade, to collaborate with the company on a new work called, Cloud In…
Shopping at Sundance
Feature debut from New Zealand filmmakers Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland, Shopping, which has premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, deals with the troubled home life of two half-Samoan brothers against a backdrop of…
Yes He Can
Mosgiel man Dean O’Brien, 34, a former radio presenter, has topped the United Kingdom iTunes children’s chart this week with, The Yes I Can Club, an album created to make children feel…
Touring Dance Thrills
Professional New Zealand Strictly Come Dancing star Brendan Cole, 36, who has appeared in all ten series of one of Britain’s longest running television programmes, has built up a following of his…
