Leon van den Eijkel: “A Colourful Nation – Kleur Bekennen”
In 1995, Leon van den Eijkel exploded onto the Aotearoa art scene with a brilliant burst of colour – and an exhibition that brought the Dutch influence of Mondriaan’s modernism to New Zealand.
Since then, the works by the Dutch immigrant have featured on the Wellington waterfront with the Urban Trees wind sculpture of colourful squares, the Avalon and Hobsonville sets of three Smiling Windmills, the Waiheke Cross Roads, Totem on the Brick Bay Sculpture Trail, and his gigantic masterpiece Red Cloud Confrontation in the Gibbs Farm Sculpture Park on the Kaipara Harbour.
Historian Dr Toby Boraman has been appointed as the 2025 JD Stout Fellow by the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington.