Born 1951 in Te Aroha, New Zealand.
Susan Te Kahurangi King doesn’t speak with words, but shares much of her world through extraordinary drawings.
Born in New Zealand in 1951, King stopped speaking around age four but drew prolifically through her thirties, when, suddenly, she stopped. In 2008, almost twenty years later, she resumed her work, picking up where she left off. Since then, King has continued her remarkable output of drawings in graphite, pencil, crayon, ink, and pens of various types. Intense, whimsical, wide-ranging, and haunting, her references and subjects dare us to interpret them in any logical way—and we fail. Still, we remain engaged and intrigued by their skillful audaciousness.
King’s family has supported her art making with unwavering faith and affection. One of a dozen children in a tumultuous household, her mother saved and preserved her drawings in trunks and cases. Some were dated and annotated. They have all been organized and catalogued. King's drawings and sketchbooks range from simple images to rich, fully drawn pages alive with complex textures that defy interpretation. Each piece reveals a profoundly active imagination and hints at the depth of King’s output, offering viewers a peek into her worlds and those she has yet to reveal.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
Susan Te Kahurangi King: Survey 1956-2022, Ruttkowski;68, Düsseldorf, Germany
2019
Susan Te Kahurangi King: In Colour, Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
Little, Little, Big, Wallace Gallery, Morrinsville, New Zealand
Susan Te Kahurangi King: 1958-2018, curated by Alison Amick, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago, IL
2018
Little, Little, Big, The Pah Homestead, TSB Wallace Arts Trust, Auckland, New Zealand
Susan Te Kahurangi King: Drawings 2008-2018, Marlborough Contemporary, London, UK
Paperdwellers, Artspace, Auckland, New Zealand
Auckland Art Fair, Robert Heald Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Outsider Art Fair, New York, NY
2017
Drawings 1960-1970, Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington
Susan Te Kahurangi King, Marlborough Contemporary, London
2016
Susan Te Kahurangi King: Drawings 1975-1989, curated by Chris Byrne and Robert Heald, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
Susan Te Kahurangi King, curated by Tina Kukielski, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL
2015
From the One I Call My Own, City Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
Susan Te Kahurangi King, Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
Susan Te Kahurangi King | Peter Saul, Outsider Art Fair, New York, NY
Susan Te Kahurangi King, Andrew Edlin Gallery at Art Basel Miami Beach, FL
2014
Susan Te Kahurangi King: Drawings from Many Worlds, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
Susan Te Kahurangi King, Outsider Art Fair, Chris Byrne and Marquand Books, New York, NY
2013
Susan Te Kahurangi King, Outsider Art Fair, Chris Byrne + Marquand Books, Paris, FR
2010
Introducing Susan Te Kahurangi King, curated by Sophie Oiseau and Aaron King-Cole, The High Seas, Auckland, New Zealand
2009
Susan Te Kahurangi King, curated by Peter Day, Callan Park Gallery, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
Multitudes, American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY
Axolotl Tank, organized by Jess Johnson, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, NY
2021
Parallel Phenomena: Works on Paper by Carroll Dunham, Susan Te Kahurangi King, Gladys Nilsson and Peter Saul, curated by Damon Brandt, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
Figure Out: Abstraction in Self-Taught Art, Outsider Art Fair New York, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
Small World, Outsider Art Fair New York, Shin Gallery, New York, NY
Semiotic Terrain: Art from Australia and New Zealand, Outsider Art Fair New York, Salon 94, New York, NY
2020
Dream Baby Dream, curated by Gesine Borcherdt, Haus Mödrath – Räume für Kunst, Kerpen, DE
An Alternative Canon: Art Dealers Collecting Outsider Art, curated by Paul Laster, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
Good Luck, Shrine Gallery, New York, NY
2019
One Hundred Drawings, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, NY
Summer Exhibition: Recent Works, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
Doors of Perception, curated by Javier Téllez in collaboration with the Outsider Art Fair, Frieze, New York, NY
Drawn Together Again, The Flag Art Foundation, New York, NY
2018
Vestiges and Verse: Notes from the Newfangled Epic, American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY
2015
Interfaces: Outsider Art and the Mainstream, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Word Builders: Bob Gerrard, Susan Te Kahurangi King, Harry Watson, The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Susan Te Kahurangi King | Shannon Te Ao: from the one I call my own, City Gallery Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
2014
PURPLE STATES, curated by Sam Gordon, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
Promenades, Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
Shit Like Hair, White Flag Projects, St. Louis, MI
2012
Secret Garden, Hastings City Art Gallery, Hastings, New Zealand
Local Knowledge, curated by Stuart Shepherd, MADmusée, Liège, Belgium
Look, Know, Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2019
Voon, Claire, “‘The More You Look at Susan’s Work, the More You Uncover:’ Susan Te Kahurangi King’s Inimitable Drawings Showcased in Chicago,” ARTnews, June 24.
2018
Schwartz, Sanford, "In Their Own Worlds," New York Review of Books, June 7.
Doran, Anne, “Masterpieces from the Margins: The Outsider Art Fair Triumphs in New York,” ARTnews, January 19.
Smith, Roberta, “The Outsider Fair Once More Confirms That Art Is Everywhere,” The New York Times, January 18.
2017
Price, Patrick, “The Joys and Terrors of an Outsider Artist,” Hyperallergic, July 1.
Koerner von Gustorf, Oliver, “Disney Girl”, BLAU, Summer issue.
Cocozza, Paula, “Silent Witness: the Outsider Art of Susan Te Kahurangi King,” The Guardian, May 31.
Mobilio, Albert, “The Drawings of Susan Te Kahurangi King,” BookForum, April/May.
2016
Hall, Emily, “Susan Te Kahurangi King: Andrew Edlin Gallery,” Artforum, December.
“Susan Te Kahurangi King,” The New Yorker, October 30.
Nadel, Dan. “There is No Center,” Modern Painters, June.
2015
Amery, Mark. “Inside Out,” New Zealand Listener, July 7.
Laster, Paul. “Drawing from Many Worlds, Susan Te Kahurangi King,” ArtAsiaPacific Magazine, May/June.
Hirsch, Faye. “Susan Te Kahurangi King,” Art in America, March 13.
Herriman, Kat, “Outstanding Outsiders,” W Magazine, February 2.
2014
Rudick, Nicole. “Staff Picks: Crayoned Cartoons and Computer Corruption,” Paris Review, December 19.
Frank, Priscilla. “Here Are the 15 Best Art Exhibitions of 2014,” Huffington Post, December 16.
Saltz, Jerry. “The 19 Best Art Shows of 2014,” Vulture, December 10.
Saltz, Jerry. “All Hail Susan Te Kahurangi King,” Vulture, November 21.
Ebony, David. “David Ebony’s Top 10 New York Gallery Shows for November,” artnet news, November 21.
Rosenberg, Karen. “Art in Review, Susan Te Kahurangi King: ‘Drawings from Many Worlds’,” The New York Times, November 20.
Gómez, Edward M. "Explosive Drawing: Susan King's Mash-ups, Strange Landscapes, and Other Worlds," Hyperallergic, November 8.
Frank, Priscilla. “This Outsider Stopped Speaking As A Child, Communicates Solely Through Her Work,” Huffington Post, November 7.
Indrisek, Scott. “The Many Worlds of Susan Te Kahurangi King,” BLOUIN ARTINFO, November 5.
Saltz, Jerry. "Seeing Out Loud: The Best Things I Saw at Frieze New York and the Outsider Art Fair," Vulture, May 13.
Ebony, David. "In Step with the Outsiders: The Outsider Art Fair," Art in America, May 9.
Rosenberg, Karen. "Unorthodox, Maybe, but Scarcely on the Fringe," New York Times, May 8.
Gómez, Edward M. "Outsider Art Preview: Blurred Categories and Fairs Big and Small," Hyperallergic, May 3.
Gómez, Edward M. “Remarkable Draftsmanship from Way Down Under,” Raw Vision 83.
2010
Gómez, Edward M., “The New Outsiders,” Arts and Antiques Magazine, January.
FILMOGRAPHY
Chidester, Brian and John Winer, “Drawing The Inside Out: The Art of Susan Te Kahurangi King,” Art Ephemera TV, 2018.
Salmon, Dan, Pictures of Susan, Octopus Pictures, 2012.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, New Zealand
James Wallace Arts Trust, Auckland, New Zealand
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA