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A photographic homage to New Zealand Samoan rugby players working in France is one of four finalists in this year's Walters Prize, the biggest biennial arts prize in the country.
Auckland photographer Edith Amituanai's Dejeuner series combines portraits of players on the field at Montpellier Herault Rugby Club in France with studies of their parents' lounges back home in New Zealand - lounges turned into tributes decorated with their sons' rugby photos and trophies.
Amituanai, 28, the recipient of last year's inaugural Marti Friedlander Photography Award, is joined by three other Auckland artists, the first time Auckland-only artists have been nominated for the Walters since the prize launched in 2002.
Lisa Reihana, 43, has been chosen for her Digital Marae series of large photos relocating Maori ancestral figures like Maui into a contemporary tribal context. Artists John Reynolds and Peter Robinson have both previously been nominated for the Walters.
This time, 52-year-old Reynolds' 7000-piece work Cloud, which was shown at the 2006 Sydney Biennale, has made the cut.
Each piece of white canvas in the work is covered with a word or phrase from Harry Orsman's Oxford Dictionary of NZ English, published in 1997. Reynolds made the list of finalists in 2002 for his work Harry Human Heights.
Robinson's Ack, a collection of large thrusting white and blue polystyrene shapes shown at Artspace in 2006, follows on from the 42-year-old's selection in 2006 for The Humours.
Each finalist receives $5000 in prize money, and the winner - who will be announced by an as-yet unnamed international judge on October 31 - will pick up a package which includes $50,000 cash and an all-expenses paid trip to New York, including a chance to exhibit at Saatchi & Saatchi's world headquarters.
Previous winners of the Walters Prize have been Yvonne Todd, the art collective et al and Francis Upritchard.
