Editor-in-Chief, Pacific Arts Legacy Project, Creative New Zealand.
Co-Editor, Marinade: Aotearoa Journal of Moana Art.
2022 Arts Editor, Metro Magazine.
RESIDENCIES
2021 Michael King Writers Centre – Emerging Pasifika Writer
A selection of recent publications:
AUTHORED BOOKS
Lopesi, L. (2021). Bloody Woman. Wellington: Bridget Williams Books. (2022 Ockham Book Awards Longlist – General Non-fiction)
Lopesi, L. (2018). False Divides. Wellington: Bridget Williams Books.
EDITED BOOKS & VOLUMES
Lopesi, L. (2023 – forthcoming). Pacific Arts Legacy Project. Auckland: Penguin Random House.
Hogue, T., Dilley, S, B., Carmichael, F., Eshrāghi, L & Lopesi, L. (Eds.). (2019). Transits & Returns. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery; Brisbane: Institute of Modern Art.
SELECTED ARTICLES
Lopesi, L. (2022). Why art is a little boring right now (and why that might be for the best). Metro, Spring 436. 224–228.
Lopesi, L. (2022). Living in the City ain’t so Bad. Metro, Winter 435. https://www.metromag.co.nz/city-life/city-life-property/living-in-the-city-aint-so-bad
Lopesi, L. (2022). Mapping Relation: Simon Denny & Karamia Müller. Metro, Winter 435. Retrieved from https://www.metromag.co.nz/arts/mapping-relation-simon-denny-karamia-muller
Lopesi, L. (2022). How does creativity help strengthen Pacific wellbeing and identities? Ensemble. Retrieved from https://www.ensemblemagazine.co.nz/articles/how-does-creativity-help-strengthen-pacific-wellbeing-and-identities
Lopesi, L. (2022). WATCH THE SHOW, PLEASE: Brainchild of comedian PAX ASSADI, Raised by Refugees is an overdue addition to local television. Metro, Autumn 434. 154–157.
Lopesi, L. (2022). While the world continues to wait for her debut album, TEREMOANA RAPLEY moves unapologetically to her own beat. Metro, Autumn 434. 38–41.
Lopesi, L. (2022). Birdseye View: Diggy Dupé on the proud Polynesian history of central Auckland. The Spinoff. Retrieved from https://thespinoff.co.nz/parrotdog/07-05-2022/birdseye-view-diggy-dupe-on-the-proud-polynesian-history-of-central-auckland
Lopesi, L. (2021). Priced Out: What happens when artists can’t afford to make art?. Metro, Summer, Issue 433. 230–235.
Lopesi, L. (2021). Reclaiming Paradise: Yuki Kihara, Gauguin and the Venice Biennale. Metro, Summer, Issue 433. 214–221.
Lopesi, L. (2021). Review of Slow Boil, Artspace Aotearoa. Architecture Now Sept/Oct Issue. 113–114.
Lopesi, L. (2021). Good girls write memoirs, bad girls make art. Metro, Spring, Issue 432. 214–221.
Lopesi, L. (2021). Broken Promises: Three documentaries trace our changing relationship to the internet. Metro, Winter, Issue 431. 246–249.
Lopesi, L. (2021). Prime Time [Feature of Rose Matafeo]. North & South, June, Issue 416. 78-81.
Lopesi, L. (2021). Family Business [In Conversation with Cora-Allan Wickliffe]. Artnews, Autumn 2021. 75-77.
Lopesi, L. (2021). Extend and Snap. Art History Is a Mother series. City Gallery Wellington/Verb. Retrieved from https://citygallery.org.nz/blog/extend-and-snap/
Lopesi, L. (2021). Your Non-archivable, Our Archival Assemblage: A Samoan Perspective. In R. Buchanan, A. Burns, J. Lundh, & H. Rose (Eds) Uneven Bodies Reader. Govett Brewster Gallery/Len Lye Centre. 94-99.
Lopesi, L. (2021). True Romance [Feature on Natasha Matila-Smith]. Metro, Autumn, Issue 430. 160–165.
Lopesi, L. (2021). Through a window into a time not my own [Feature on Ana Iti and Shannon Te Ao]. Artnow. Retrieved from https://artnow.nz/essays/through-a-window-into-a-time-not-my-own
Lopesi, L. (2021). Pillow Talk. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/posts/pillow-talk
Lopesi, L. (2020/2021). Pacific Waves [Feature on Vunilagi Vou and Moana Fresh]. Metro, Summer, Issue 429. 172–177.
Lopesi, L. (2020). An etymology of lessgo*. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/posts/etymology-lessgo
Lopesi, L. (2020). A Toke to Wellness. Essential Services Zine, 2, 11–14. https://essentialserviceszine.com/
Lopesi, L. (2020). On Literary Loneliness and Disclaimers*. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/posts/Literary-Loneliness-and-Disclaimers
Lopesi, L. (2020). Where in the world? Placing New Zealand in the Pacific. Bulletin. Christchurch: Christchurch Art Gallery.
Lopesi, L. (2020). When Worlds Collide: Pacific Ideas of Success in New Zealand’s Workforce. Flint & Steel (Maxim Institute), 6, 4–7.
Lopesi, L. (2020). A Lunar Cycle of Fasting. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/posts/a-lunar-cycle-of-fasting
Lopesi, L. (2020). Art in Isolation. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/art-in-isolation
Lopesi, L. & Prior, K. (2020). Freelance Freefall: Covid-19 and Our Artists. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/freelance-freefall
Lopesi, L. (2020). The Future of Craft in Aotearoa. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/future-craft-talanoa
Lopesi, L. (2020). Moana Publics Online, In E. Johnson (Ed). Public Knowledge. Christchurch: Freerange Press. 48–57.
Lopesi, L. (2020). Living, or Just Surviving? The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/living-or-just-surviving
Lopesi, L. (2019). Performing Measina: Craft in Contemporary Pacific Performance. In K. Chitham, K. Māhina-Tuai, & D. Skinner (Eds.). Crafting Aotearoa (pp. 386 – 388). Wellington: Te Papa Press.
Lopesi, L. (2019). When Pasifika students feel tokenised, it’s no wonder there’s a lack of Pasifika professors. Noted. Retrieved from https://www.noted.co.nz/currently/currently-education/pasifika-students-university-tokenised-lack-professors
Lopesi, L. (2019). Finally, a TV series that reflects intelligent young brown people – and foretells Ihumātao. Noted. Retrieved from https://www.noted.co.nz/culture/culture-television/nz-tv-series-reflects-intelligent-young-brown-people-and-foretells-ihumatao
Lopesi, L. (2019). The Power of Mangy Dogs. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/power-of-mangy-dogs
Lopesi, L. (2019). Solidarity Through Distance: Radical Imagination in the work of Ahilapalapa Rands. Circuit. Retrieved from http://www.circuit.org.nz/blog/summer-reading-series-2018-3-solidarity-through-distance-radical-imagination-in-the-work-of
Lopesi, L. (2018). Paradise Paradise: The Island Myth, Island Island. Retrieved from https://island-is.land/texts/paradise-paradise
Lopesi, L. (2018). Oceania at the Academy: Tributes, Mourning & the Legacy of Cook, Art New Zealand, 168, 58–61.
Lopesi, L. (2018). Walking Back Into the Future: Indigenous Futurisms, New Media and Contemporary Assertions of Indigeneity, dɪˈvan | A Journal of Accounts, 4, 130–137.
Lopesi, L. (2018). Beyond Essentialism: Contemporary Moana Art from Aotearoa New Zealand, Afterall 46, 108–115.
Lopesi, L. (2018). Unrecognised Little Gifts: Neighbourhood in the Work of Edith Amituanai, In T. MacKinnon (Ed.), Keep on Kimi Ora (pp. 16-19). Hastings: Hastings City Art Gallery.
Lopesi, L. (2018). So, You Want to be the “Largest Polynesian City in the World”? The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/largest-polynesian-city
Lopesi, L. (2018). Critical Infrastructures. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/critical-infastructures
Lopesi, L. (2017). The Western Imagining. Aotearotica 4, 7-12.
Lopesi, L. (2017). How New Zealand’s Millennial Artists are Confronting Generational Stigma. GARAGE Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ne7z38/how-new-zealands-millennial-artists-are-confronting-generational-stigma
Lopesi, L. (2017). Bananarama [Feature on Janet Lilo]. Paperboy, 14, 26-31.
Lopesi, L. (2017). In my house now [Feature on FAFSWAG’s VICE documentary]. Paperboy, 11, 20-25.
Lopesi, L. (2017). Reimagining the Matriarchy: One GIF at a Time, Runway, 33. Retrieved from http://runway.org.au/reimagining-the-matriarchy-one-gif-at-a-time/
Lopesi, L. (2017). Caught in the thirst trap: White gaze on black bodies. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/caught-in-the-thirst-trap
Lopesi, L. (2016). Young Mums, the Arts Ecology and ‘Being Radical’. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/young-mums-arts-ecology-being-radical
Lopesi, L. (2016). Safety in Numbers: Poly Twitter and carving out digital space. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/safety-in-numbers-poly-twitter
Lopesi, L. (2016). The Changing of the Seas: Notes from the Pacific Arts Association Symposium. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/pacific-arts-association-symposium-auckland-changing-of-the-seas
Lopesi, L. (2016). Reinstating the smoko, un Magazine, 10.1, 52-58.
Lopesi, L. (2016). East Goes West, Art New Zealand, 157, 85-87.
Lopesi, L. (2016). Allyship, not ownership: on good curatorship, and being tauiwi. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/curatorship-and-being-tauiwi
Lopesi, L. (2015). Decolonisation Frameworks: Indigenous Curatorial Practice. Runway, 27. Retrieved from http://runway.org.au/decolonisation-frameworks-indigenous-curatorial-practice/
SELECTED REPORTING
Lopesi, L. (2020). Right now, our islands need us to stay away. E-Tangata. Retrieved from https://e-tangata.co.nz/comment-and-analysis/right-now-our-islands-need-us-to-stay-away/
Lopesi, L. (2020). Bringing Art to the World. Metro, March-April, 96–97.
Lopesi, L. (2019). How Auckland’s Mercury Plaza became a site of cultural significance. Noted. Retrieved from https://www.noted.co.nz/culture/culture-arts/how-aucklands-mercury-plaza-became-a-site-of-cultural-significance
Lopesi, L. (2019). The debate over Theo Schoon, who built his career on the backs of Māori artists. The Spinoff. Retrieved from https://thespinoff.co.nz/art/08-08-2019/the-debate-over-theo-schoon-who-built-his-career-on-the-backs-of-maori-artists/
SELECTED INTERVIEWS
Lopesi, L. (2020). Cyborg Hunnies: Mediating Diasporic Difference. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/cyborg-hunnies
Lopesi, L. (2019). The tension – and honour – of being the first Pacific Island woman Rhodes Scholar. Noted. Retrieved from https://www.noted.co.nz/currently/currently-education/the-tension-and-honour-of-being-the-first-pacific-island-woman-rhodes-scholar
Lopesi, L. (2019). Moving on from Disney’s Moana: The broader portrayal of women in Vai. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/the-broader-portrayal-of-women-in-vai
Lopesi, L. (2017). On which the sun never sets: interview with Tina Baum: Defying Empire: 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial at the National Gallery of Australia’. Broadsheet Journal 46.2, 14-19.
Lopesi, L. (2017). Why Can’t We All Just Get Along? The Curatorial Edition. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/the-curatorial-edition
Lopesi, L. (2017). The ‘D’ Word: In Conversation with Alice Canton, The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/The-D-Word-Alice-Canton
Lopesi, L. (2017). Waking Giants: The Politics of Existing. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/waking-giants-politics-of-existing
SELECTED REVIEWS
Lopesi, L. (2020). The Goddess Muscle by Karlo Mila. Academy of New Zealand Literature: Te Whare Mātātuhi o Aotearoa. Retrieved from https://www.anzliterature.com/anzl-review/the-goddess-muscle-by-karlo-mila/
Lopesi, L. (2020). Thick As: A Glowing Response to FAT [Review of the exhibition FAT by E. Tavola]. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/Fat-Vunilagi-Vou
Lopesi, L. (2019). The Future is a Possibility We Must Guard With Our Lives [Review of the exhibition The Future of Our Kids by I. Gordon-Smith]. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/future-of-our-kids-review.
Lopesi, L. (2019). The Shouting Valley: a politically charged show about lives caught between borders [Review of the exhibition The Shouting Valley by L. Buchamp]. The Spinoff. Retrieved from https://thespinoff.co.nz/art/23-10-2019/the-shouting-valley-a-politically-charged-show-about-lives-caught-between-borders/
Lopesi, L. (2019). Drawing lines between us all: Julia Mage’au Gray’s Melanesian mark-making [Review of the exhibition Lain Blo Yu Mi – Our People Our Lines by E. Tavola]. The Spinoff. Retrieved from https://thespinoff.co.nz/art/12-09-2019/drawing-lines-between-us-all-julia-mageau-grays-melanesian-mark-making/
Lopesi, L. (2019). Is that the Pacific Ocean, or Just My Tears? [Review of the exhibition Moana Don’t Cry by G. Salgado]. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/Moana-Dont-Cry-review
Lopesi, L. (2019). A sprawling art show about a culture at boiling point [Review of the exhibition How to Live Together by B. Shingade]. The Spinoff. Retrieved from https://thespinoff.co.nz/art/21-08-2019/how-to-live-together-a-sprawling-art-show-about-a-culture-at-boiling-point/
Lopesi, L. (2019). Finding What’s Stolen [Review of the exhibition names held in our mouths by I. Gordon-Smith]. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/review-names-mouths
Lopesi, L. (2018). From where I stand, my eye will send a light to you in the North [Review of the exhibition From where I stand, my eye will send a light to you in the North by G. Salgado]. un Extended. Retrieved from http://unprojects.org.au/un-extended/reviews/from-where-i-stand/
Lopesi, L. (2018). Digital Launima [Review of the exhibition Digital Launima by V. Mafile’o]. un Extended. Retrieved from http://unprojects.org.au/un-extended/reviews/digital-launima/
Lopesi, L. (2017). The Moral Argument [Review of the exhibition Jealous Saboteurs by F. Upritchard]. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/review-jealous-saboteurs
Lopesi, L. (2017). Empowering Bright-eyes [Review of the exhibition #keeponkimiora by E. Amituanai]. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/review-keeponkimiora
Lopesi, L. (2017). “Let Beryl and I sort it out”: On Len Lye and Friendships [Review of the exhibition On an Island: Len Lye, Robert Graves and Laura Riding by P. Brobbel]. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/len-lye
Lopesi, L. (2017). An Homage, a Beacon: On Michael Parekowhai’s The Lighthouse [Review of The Lighthouse by M. Parekowhai]. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/lighthouse
Lopesi, L. (2016). Mere pockets of aspiration [Review of the exhibition Potentially Yours, The Coming Community by T. J. Mutambu]. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/review-potentially-yours
Lopesi, L. (2016). State of Play: A Review of Johnson Witehira’s ‘Half-blood’ [Review of the exhibition Half-blood by J. Witehira]. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/review-half-blood
Lopesi, L. (2016). Church and State: ‘Janet Lilo: Status Update’ the Publication [Review of the book Status Update by I. Gordon-Smith (Ed.)]. The Pantograph Punch. Retrieved from https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/janet-lilo-status-update
Lopesi, L. (2015). Lonnie Hutchinson’s Fish Eyes [Review of the exhibition Fish Eye’s by L. Hutchinson]. Circuit. Retrieved from http://www.circuit.org.nz/blog/lonnie-hutchinsons-fish-eyes
lanalopesi.com 