Nigel Borrell
Curator, Writer, Educator, Artist
Nigel Borell is of Pirirakau, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi, Te Whakatōhea tribal descent. He is a curator, writer, educator and artist specialising in Māori art in both customary and contemporary fields of research.
Recent curatorial projects include co-curating with Zara Stanhope Moa Hunter Fashions by Areta Wilkinson, for 9th Asia Pacific Triennial, QAGOMA, Brisbane (2018) and The Māori Portraits: Gottfried Lindauer’s New Zealand, to deYoung Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco
(2017). Current projects include the curatorium to Histōrias Indīgenas-Indigenous Histories at Museu de Art de (MASP), São Paulo, Brazil (2023). Most recently Borell curated the large survey exhibition Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki (2021), where he was the Curator Māori art from 2015-2020.
(2017). Current projects include the curatorium to Histōrias Indīgenas-Indigenous Histories at Museu de Art de (MASP), São Paulo, Brazil (2023). Most recently Borell curated the large survey exhibition Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki (2021), where he was the Curator Māori art from 2015-2020.
Borell participated in the First Nations Indigenous Curators Exchange programme(2015-2017) a partnership initiative of Creative New Zealand, Canada Council for the Arts and Australia Council for the Arts. Recent writing projects include a contributing essay to Becoming our Future, a new publication engaged in the discourse of Indigenous curatorial practice from New Zealand, Canada and Australia (2020). Borell is currently a Teaching Fellow for The Faculty of Arts, The University of Auckland.