Yuki Kihara

Shigeyuki "Yuki" Kihara (born 1975) is an interdisciplinary artist of Japanese and Samoan descent. In 2008, her work was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; it was the first time a New Zealander and the first time a Pacific Islander had a solo show at the institution. Titled ''Shigeyuki Kihara: Living Photographs'', the exhibition opened from 7 October 2008 to 1 February 2009. Kihara's self-portrait photographs in the exhibitions included nudes in poses that portrayed colonial images of Polynesian people as sexual objects. Her exhibition was followed by an acquisition of Kihara's work for the museum's collection.

Much of Kihara's work challenges cultural stereotypes and dominant norms of sexuality and gender found across the globe. Kihara is also a fa'afafine, the third gender of Samoa. Born in Samoa, Kihara's mother is Samoan and her father is Japanese. Kihara immigrated to Wellington, New Zealand, at the age of fifteen to further her studies. She trained in fashion design at Wellington Polytech (now Massey University). In 1995, while still a student, Kihara's ''Graffiti Dress – Bombacific'' was purchased by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa). Kihara's exhibition ''Teuanoa'i: Adorn to Excess'' was composed of twenty six t-shirts that took large corporations' logos and re-appropriated them. Kihara described the concept "to subvert the system of power which governs the lives of Indigenous peoples today."

Kihara lives and works in Samoa, where she has been based over the last 10 years. Provided by Wikipedia