An upcoming exhibition in Otara plays with the idea of identity through the art of portraiture.

Niutuiatua Lemalu’s Alias, Fresh Gallery Otara’s fiftieth exhibition, takes subjects and stories from magazines, dissecting the stereotyping and masking of identity that is so common in this media.

Lemalu’s process allows him to gain better understanding of his subjects as he transforms them through paint. In re-imagining these images, he exposes the characters’ flaws and the clashes between stereotypes and reality.

Fresh Gallery Otara Manager Ema Tavola, who is also council’s Pacific Arts Co-ordinator, says that the paintings in Alias are confronting and thought-provoking and that she expects a positive response to this exhibition of more than 20 individual painted portraits.

“Lemalu is a fascinating emerging Manukau artist. I expect that we’ll see a lot more of him after his first solo exhibition at Fresh Gallery Otara.

“His work is effective and interesting in both mainstream art and grassroots art contexts. It is informed by a local context and translated into a fine arts language - oil and canvas being the most traditional of fine arts mediums.”

Lemalu, who is based in Manurewa, was educated at Epsom’s St Peters College and is in the process of completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts.