Telly Tu’u’s culture is a seminal part of his practice. With Samoan, Chinese, Tokelau and Tuvalu heritage, his atmospheric abstract works reference his Pacific Islander background. Raised surrounded by Tapa cloths and Samoan Pe’a (tattoo), his work is emblematic of these influences that derive patterns from nature. Now living and working in Australia, Tu’u’s work broach his own heritage and lived experience. His vocabulary of abstract gestures are informed both by traditional cultural practices and Western contemporary abstraction. At the core of this personal vocabulary is nature – a sublime reflection of the environments of his past and present.

In moments of pressure and erasure, Tu’u’s fluid marks move through the life cycles of nature. With the use of shifting shape and colour, the artist weaves beach, sand, water, trees, scrub and leaves into a narrative of movement and rhythm. Moments of pause collide with movements of frenetic energy. Within his paintings, Tu’u presents the viewer with hard-edge forms, which sit in stark contrast to the energetic, smoke-like wash of their backdrops. The artist explains that these serve as anchors, or pauses within the paintings, through which the momentum of the painting is slowed down. Viewing each work as an entry point to another, Tu’u’s paintings flow within and beyond the canvas, giving the sense that what we see in his ambient works are mere moments in a grand and undulating landscape. His paintings, both individually and as a collective abstracted landscape, hold and slow their viewer as sites of contemplation and visual surrender.

Telly Tu’u received a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Canterbury University (NZ) in 2009, and a Master of Fine Arts in 2012 at the Sydney College of Arts. In 2011 he was the recipient of the Australia Postgraduate Award from Sydney University. His work is held in numerous public and private collections throughout Australia and New Zealand, including the University of Canterbury, The James Wallace Art Trust and Artbank.