Sam Hamilton

Samhamilton.org

He/him/ or they/them

Pākehā (Te reo Māori term for white New Zealander)

B.1984 Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand.

Currently based in Portland, Oregon, USA, located on the territories of the Chinook people.


Sam Hamilton is a working-class interdisciplinary artist / creative researcher whose practice functions more like an ecology than a discipline. A modular complex of networked transmogrify. A nurturing nebula of interweaving inquiry; material, methodological, phenomenological, intercontextual.


A confluence

A garden

A song 


Their practice las lead them to produce work inside an active volcano crater / an astrophysics observatory atop a remote desert mountain / Sāmoa with dance artist and chief Ioane Papali’i  / an anarcho-artist squat in Greece / on islands of industrial rubble in the US / a inside a Shinto shrine in Japan with Māori choreographer Cathy Livermore / a German royal palace banquet hall with director Lemi Ponifasio / and a 3-month self-directed Sound Art research project in the Amazon rainforest.


Hamilton has been a full-time practicing and working artist for  15 years, maintaining a constant state of activity producing and presented work within and across many different creative, cultural, and professional contexts in Aotearoa, Australia, North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Among other places, their work has been presented at Whitechapel Gallery (London), ISSUE Project Room (NYC), Locust Project (Miami), ARTSPACE (NZ), Extrapool (Netherlands), The Center of Contemporary Art & Culture (USA), St Paul St Gallery (NZ) Dokfest (Germany), Dunedin Public Art Gallery (NZ), the NZ International Film Festival (NZ), Wellington City Gallery (NZ), Brick Bay Sculpture Park (NZ), and a 6-month solo exhibition at the Portland Art Museum. Among a number of significant accomplishments, Hamilton received the prestigious New Zealand Arts Foundation New Generation Award in 2011. 


For much of the last decade they have also been working as a creative member of the internationally acclaimed Lemi Ponifasio / MAU Dance Company, helping produce and perform major stage works for the Louvre Museum Abu Dhabi (UAE), Brooklyn Academy of Music (US), Berliner Festspiele (Germany), Holland Festival (Amsterdam), Onassis Center (Greece), Luminato (Canada), Ruhrtriannale (Germany) the Unesco HQ (France), the New Zealand Festival (NZ) and much more.


Between 2005 – 2011 they created, directed and managed the FPS Live Cinema Programme for the Auckland International Film Festival, as well as the independent DIY artist festivals, the Alleluya Noise Festival, the Cinema Ascension Festival, the Feel Good Things Festival, as well as organising many other creative community projects and events across Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.



Awards / Grants / Commissions / Residencies:

  • Arts Foundations New Generation Artist Award (2011).

  • Ford Family Foundation Golden Spot Leland Iron Works Artist Residency Award. OR, USA (2019). 

  • Finalist for the SFFILM New American Fellowship. USA (2019).

  • (invited but not accepted) OICR Fellowship in Critical Studies and Film making. USA (2018).

  • Locust Project 20/20 exhibition commission. Miami, FL. (2018).

  • Cinema Bay Society LIGHT PRESS Grant (2017).

  • THICK CINEMA Commission from CIRCUIT Artist Film & Video Aotearoa (2017).

  • Oregon Arts Commission Professional Development. Apple Pie Tour (2017).

  • Wallace Arts Trust grant for Apple Pie (2016).

  • CIRCUIT Artist Production Commission (2015).

  • Wallace Awards finalist (2014).

  • Creative New Zealand Arts Grant (2014).

  • ESXLA artist in residence program, Los Angeles (2014, invited but not undertaken).

  • Oikia Karapanou Studios Residency, Aegina Island, Greece. (2012).

  • Extrapool, Artist in Residence Program, Netherlands (2011).

  • Goethe Institut Cultural Ambassador Exchange Residency Berlin (2011, invited, not undertaken).

  • Creative New Zealand Arts Grant (2011).

  • “Best Music for short choreographic work”, TEMPO Festival, Auckland (2010).

  • Best EXiS Award (best of the fest) – ExiS festival Seoul, Korea. (2009).

  • 3rd Prize for Film Category for Blue “Tide/Black Water” Flex Fest, Florida. (2009).

  • Auckland Council Living Room Program Commission collaboration with John Reynolds. (2011). 

  • Creative New Zealand Quick Response grant (2009).

  • Creative New Zealand Screen Innovation grant (2008).

  • Creative New Zealand Screen Innovation Grant (2008).

  • SOUNZ Community Commission (2008).

  • Creative New Zealand Arts Grant (2007).

  • Starving Artist Award (2007).

  • Mamori Sound Project, Brazil (2007).



Select Exhibitions:

  • Leland Ironworks exhibition, Center for Contemporary Art & Culture at PNCA, Portland OR (2019).

  • “How to Live Together”, St Paul St Gallery, AUT, Aoteaora (2019). 

  • Auckland Live! Aotea Square Digital Stage (2019).

  • Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Rear Window screen work (2018). 

  • Mason Street Monitor, Wellington. Solo screening (2018).

  • “20/20”, Locust Project, Miami, Florida. Group show (2018).

  • THICK Cinema screening series at Whitechapel Gallery London (2018).

  • Apple Pie – The Wallace Pah Homestead. 3x month Solo exhibition (2017-2018).

  • THICK Cinema screenings Christchurch Art Gallery, Adam Art Gallery, & Te Uru Gallery (2017). 

  • Standard Candles – Portland Art Museum. 6x month Solo Exhibition (2017).

  • Wallace Awards Finalists Exhibition, TSB Wallace Arts Centre, Pataka Museum (2014-2015)

  • SONAR REALIDAD INTERIOR – High Street Project, Christchurch. Solo exhibition (2008).

  • Our Grandfather is the Jaguar –.NZ Film Archives, Auckland. solo exhibition. (2009).

  • Seeds of the Wild – at Puffin Room Gallery, NYC.group exhibition (2009).

  • Post Office – ARTSPACE. 2010. group show (2019).

  • What is a choir – Brick Bay Sculpture Park (2012 – present). 

  • Auckland Triennial – Artspace Triennial opening performance (2011).

  • Audio Foundation. solo exhibition. 2011).

  • LOOKLESSNESS – The NZ Film Archives Wellington. collaborative exhibition (2007).

  • Empirical Soundings – Commonwealth Games Cultural Festival. Group show. Melbourne (2006).

  • Utopia into Dystopia – The Sculpture Park, Waitakaruru Arboretum. group exhibition (2013).

  • Bodies / Cities – Window Gallery. group exhibition (2013).

  • The Speed of Sound – Gus Fisher Gallery. group exhibition (2008).

  • visible/invisible – Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland University. group exhibition (2006).

  • Blue Tide, Black Water – Wellington City Gallery, SQUARE2. video installation series. 2008/09

  • Auckland Council Living Room Programme collab with John Reynolds (group show) (2010).

  • Gallery RFD. GA, USA. group show. (2009).

  • Mind Games: Surrealism in Aotearoa. Hastings Art Gallery. NZ (2009).

  • Viewfinder series. Auckland City Library. (2009.

  • The Audio Foundation. duo exhibition. (2012).

  • Auckland Arts Festival.sound piece for Hector Zamora installation. (2011)

  • ARTSPACE. contributor to Rirkrit Tiravanija show. (2008)



Collections


  • The Portland Art Museum

  • The Wallace Arts Trust

  • The Brick Bay Sculpture Park

  • Turnbull Library

  • National Archives of New Zealand

  • Nā Toanga Sound & Vision Archives



Select Performances:


  • THIS IS A CHOIR. 60-piece choral work performed at the Portland Art Museum. (2019). 

  • The Louvre Museum Abu Dhabi opening ceremony, Abu Dhabi (2017)  *with MAU Dance Company

  •  Unesco World Headquarters, Paris (2015)  *with MAU Dance Company

  • Brooklyn Academy of Museum, NY, (2014)  *with MAU Dance Company

  • REDCAT, Los Angeles, (2013)  *with MAU Dance Company

  • Berliner Festspiele, Berlin, Germany (2012)  *with MAU Dance Company

  • Ruhr Triannale, Germany (2014) *with MAU Dance Company

  • New Zealand Festival, New Zealand (2014)  *with MAU Dance Company

  • Dokfest, Kassel, Germany (2013) 

  • ISSUE Project Room, NYC (2009)

  • Gray Area, SF (2017)

  • This Is Not Art, Newcastle, Australia (2010)

  • Golden Plains, Meredith, Australia (2009)