CHEVRON HASSETT

Based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Hassett is best known for projects that explore urban indigeneity, colonisation, and the representation of Māori communities, often grounded in the realities of urban life. Key works include the photographic installation JustUs (2020) Enjoy Contemporary Art Space), the architectural sculpture Te Kupenga (2024) shown in Sculpture on the Gulf, 2024, and the solo exhibition Far, far away (2023) at Artspace Aotearoa. In addition to the aforementioned, his work has been shown at Te Tuhi, Govett-Brewster, The Dowse, Artspace Sydney, and he has received the Ngā Manu Pīrere Award (2017) and The Arts Foundation Springboard Award (2022).

In 2026, along with Jimmy Ma’ia’i, Harrison Freeth, and Lolani Dalosa, Hassett presented the performance work SPADES at the Aotearoa Art Fair’s Horizons programme, which centred on a SPADES hangi stall and the distribution of takeaway hangi packs to fair goers.

Background

Hassett grew up in Stokes Valley, Te Awakairangi, closely connected to Koraunui Marae, an urban marae that shapes his focus on Indigenous urbanisation and community. He completed a Bachelor of Design (Hons) at Massey University in 2016 and a diploma in Indigenous Art specialising in Whakairo Māori, combining research-based inquiry with customary carving and design.

Practice and Key works

Moving between galleries, public space, and community contexts, Hassett lets site-based research guide his choice of medium. He brings together reclaimed materials, architectural forms, and Māori spatial languages—verandahs, waharoa, lightboxes—to question how Māori presence and histories appear in the built environment.

In JustUs (Enjoy, 2020), Hassett presented portraits responding to the criminalising imagery of Māori men in media, later removing the images and leaving uniforms in their place to foreground issues of visibility and control. For Te Kupenga (Sculpture on the Gulf, 2024), he fused a carved waharoa with a colonial villa verandah, using tōtara, treated pine, pāua, and acrylic to address gentrification and the displacement of Māori families in Auckland’s central suburbs. Far, far away (Artspace Aotearoa, 2023) extended these concerns, reflecting on distance between people, histories, and places through sculptural and spatial installations.

Themes and Recognition

Hassett’s work centres on urban indigeneity, colonisation, gentrification, and the misrepresentation of Māori—particularly Māori men—in media and public discourse. Whanaungatanga and kaupapa Māori underpin his methods, which weave academic research with spiritual and relational dimensions.

He has held solo exhibitions at Artspace Aotearoa and Enjoy, and participated in programmes at Te Tuhi, Gus Fisher Gallery, Govett-Brewster, The Dowse, Artspace Sydney, and Aotearoa Art Fair’s Horizons. Awards include Creative New Zealand’s Ngā Manu Pīrere Award (2017), a Toi Pōneke residency (2019), The Arts Foundation Springboard Award with mentor Brett Graham (2022), and Objectspace’s 2026 Courtyard Plinth Commission.

Chevron Hassett FAQs

Ocula | 2026