LISA REIHANA The art of success

Growing up feeling different, Lisa's unique creative style takes us into her world, letting us see the big picture. No wonder this clever Kiwi is captivating the world.

- JUDY BAILEY

Lisa Reihana is one of New Zealand’s leading contemporary artists. Her multi-disciplinary works are internationally recognised. One of her latest pieces, Groundloop, has pride of place in the central atrium of Sydney’s Modern Art Gallery. She uses fi lm, sculpture, text and photography to bring her art to life. Her seminal work, In Pursuit of Venus, won rapturous acclaim at the Venice Biennale.

She could, she says, just as easily have been a cobbler. It’s a trade she seriously considered at one stage, with a shoe maker in Auckland’s Dominion Road. “I love shoes. I think I have a shoe problem. I need to grow more legs!” His loss is our gain.

She is the third of Lesley and George Reihana’s four children, all of them girls. “Rei, as in ray of sunshine,” she tells me with a grin. And that’s exactly how Lisa comes across. With her bold glasses and edgy haircut, the energy bounces off her. She is quick to laugh and is great company.

The Reihana daughters are extremely close. Lisa likes to think of them as a diamond. “Together, the four of us are really strong.”

Her mother Lesley is of Welsh, English, Jewish extraction. Her family immigrated here in the late 1950s. They weren’t “ten pound Poms” – they paid their way here. They had decided New Zealand was where they wanted to settle.