NINA TONGA

Assistant Professor of Art History
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Nina Tonga (PhD, University of Auckland) is an art historian and curator of contemporary art. Professor Tonga is from the villages of Vaini and Kolofo‘ou in the Kingdom of Tonga and was born and raised in Aotearoa New Zealand. She specializes in contemporary Pacific art and visual culture, with a particular focus on gender, representation, and the connections and intercultural relationships between Pacific Island nations and diaspora communities within a local and global context. Her interdisciplinary PhD research focused on the ways that Internet platforms have shaped and influenced contemporary art practices, contrasting the work of a range of artists including Māori, Pacific, Asian, First Nations, and Indigenous Australian artists. Her academic writing, reviews, media commentary, and blogs have addressed a range of areas including indigenous photographic histories, the Dawn Raids, engaging Pacific peoples in museums, and the influence of popular culture in the Pacific. She curated the acclaimed exhibitions Pacific Sisters: Fashion Activists (2018–2019) at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and To Make Wrong/ Right/ Now, Honolulu Biennial (2019), at the second international Honolulu Biennial. Her curated solo exhibitions include projects by Lemi Ponifasio, Nike Savvas, Chiharu Shiota, and Mataaho Collective. Other curatorial projects include Home AKL (2012) at Auckland Art Gallery, Toi o Tāmaki, Tonga i Onopooni (2014) at Pataka Art + Museum, and Make/Shift (2010) at St Paul Street Gallery. From 2017–2019, she was the inaugural Curator of Pacific Art at Te Papa and from 2019–2023 she was the Curator of Contemporary Art at Te Papa.