Noel Meek
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Noel Meek is a Pākehā artist based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa. He uses sound, video, and text to speculate on unseen or unimagined histories.
In Aotearoa he has worked with The Adam Art Gallery, The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, Te Tuhi, Blue Oyster, Gus Fisher, Enjoy Contemporary Art Space, Meanwhile Gallery, and The Len Lye Foundation. Internationally he has worked with Cafe Oto, the Southbank Centre, the Edinburgh Art Festival, CRiSAP, The Wire Magazine, the Arctic University of Norway, and Liquid Architecture. His films have shown at the Wairoa Māori and BFI London Film Festivals. He has published the books Archive Fever and Homage to Annea Lockwood.
His music has been described as “improvisation with an evident state of mantra mind” by Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and The Wire has said of his output: “the artist's vision isn't bleak or brutish [it’s] playful, outright fun.” Susan Ballard, author of Art and Nature in the Anthropocene: Planetary Aesthetics, has said “Meek’s composition is about alliances.”
Noel has held curatorial positions with CoCA Toi Moroki, CIRCUIT Artist Moving Image, and Stroma New Music Ensemble.
Contact Noel here.
Selected recent exhibitions, performances, works
a rainbow haunts us
Solo exhibition
Meanwhile Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara
July - August 2026
the cuckoo sings for me, for the mountain
Solo exhibition
Rokowhiria Ashburton Art Gallery
May - June 2026
Navigating Slowly
with Jeremy Leatinu’u, Nat Tozer, James Tapsell-Kururangi, Ana Iti, Janine Randerson, Jake Kīanō Skinner, Sione Faletau, and Sriwhana Spong
Curation of video art screening programme
CIRCUIT Artist Moving Image, Blue Oyster Art Project Space, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland Arts Festival, Wairau Māori Art Gallery
March - June 2026
Koia, Koia! Dig, Dig!
with Tia Barrett (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Mamoe, Te Rapuwai, Waitaha, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Tamainupō )
and Zena Elliot (Ngāti Awa, Ngāi te Rangi, Te Whānau ā Apānui, Ngāti Rangitihi)
Collaborative Installation
The Green Room, Ōtautahi
June 2025
Unworlding Ensemble | Two Landscapes
Solo exhibition
Te Wai Ngutu Kākā Gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau
March 2025
Rua Kōhatu | Two Stones
with Jake Kīanō Skinner (Ngāti Rangitihi, Tūhoe)
Single channel video
Masons Screen, CIRCUIT Artist Moving Image, Wellington
Selected for the Wairoa Māori Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival
March 2024
How Libraries Think
with the Staff of Ngā Kete Wānanga-o-Ōtautahi Christchurch City Libraries
Performance Work
Ōtautahi Tiny Performance Festival
May 2024
Walking Scores
with Elliot Vaughan
Performance works
Performance Arcade, Wellington
February 2024
Kōrero with Stone (about Deep Time)
with Jake Kīanō Skinner (Ngāti Rangitihi, Tūhoe)
Performance work
Performance Art Week Aotearoa, Christchurch
November 2023
Weather Assemblage
- with Rāhana Winiata Tito-Taylor (Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Whātua, Tainui),
Jake Kīanō Skinner (Ngāti Rangitihi, Tūhoe), Rob Thorne (Ngāti Tumutumu),
Eamon Edmundsen-Wells, Sean Martin-Buss, and Len Lye’s Storm sculptures
Performances, artist talk, masterclass
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth
August 2023
Mirror Three
with Yan Jun (CHN)
Installation and performance
Te Tuhi, Pakuranga, Auckland
August 2023
Tidalectics
with Olivia Webb
Performance work
Enjoy Contemporary Art Space, Wellington
March 2023
Post-Anthropocentric Anthem (for Judy)
with Oro Group
Performance work
CoCA Toi Moroki, Christchurch
May 2022
Homage to Annea Lockwood
with Mattin (DE)
Soundwork presentation
Creative Research into Sound Arts Practice, University of the Arts, London
April 2022
Universe Psalm
Performance work
Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Wellington
March 2022
Resilience Training
with Olivia Webb and Oro Group
Performance Work
SCAPE Public Art
November-December 2021
Awards and Commissions
Circuit: Artist Moving Image Masons Screen Commission
Rua Kōhatu | Two Stones
March 2024
Vice Chancellor’s Doctoral Scholarship
Auckland University of Technology
2024-2027
SOUNZ Community Commission
How Libraries Think
August 2023
Susan Rhind Award for Composition
Post-Anthropocentric Anthem (for Judy)
March 2022
Lilburn Awards nominee
Song for Saint Faolán
June 2021
Susan Rhind Award for Composition
Universe Psalm
March 2021
Selected Publications
Coal Scores: Being-With the More-than-Human through Speculative Performance Scores
Drain Magazine, USA
2026
Archive Fever - New Zealand Underground Sound in Fanzine Interviews 1991–1999
Marhaug Forlag, Oslo
2023
Homage to Annea Lockwood
Recital, Los Angeles
2023
The Wire: Adventures in Sound and Music Magazine
London
Regular feature writer 2015-2022
Education
Doctor of Philosophy - Art and Design
Auckland University of Technology
2024-current
Master of Musical Arts - Composition
Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music
2021-2023
Graduate Diploma in Music - Ethnomusicology
Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music
2013
Graduate Diploma of Teaching - Secondary
Victoria University of Wellington
2006
Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - English Literature
Victoria University of Wellington
2003