Shane Cotton
Shane Cotton produced his first series of lithographic prints in 1998, and a second series to follow in 2004. This most recent series was produced with the Australian Print Workshop in Melbourne and published by Gow Langsford Gallery. In them, Cotton delicately delineates images that have become synonymous with his work, including the controversial motif of upoko tuhituhi or “marked heads”, and his iconic birds. In Cotton’s depiction of these ancestors and in referencing their after-life and the heavens, his work can be seen as a way to keep their identity and memory alive.