Mikaere Gardiner graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Fine Arts) in May 2011, just days before he was outed as the artist known as Eno who was behind a series of cartoon-face paintings stuck on walls in central New Plymouth.
“I was trying to inspire and capture people,” he says.
The 24-year-old is a nationally-recognised artist, who won the Mayor’s Choice Award as one of the New Plymouth District Council’s 2010 Young Achievers. In 2009 he won a section of the National Youth Art Awards.
But 2011 has been his biggest year. In March, he worked on the mural wall at Womad, in May he was in the media spotlight for his street art and in July he had a sell-out show in New Plymouth called One.
Mikaere also works as a host at Puke Ariki, a job that entails meeting and greeting visitors and showing them around the museum. He grew up in Turangi, so working at Puke Ariki has helped him learn about Taranaki.
“I had the best time at WITT,” he says.
While studying at the Bell St campus he found the tutors supportive and the art resources excellent.
Living and breathing art is natural for Mikaere, whose parents are both artists. “I get home from work, look after Bubs and from then on I do my art.”
He dreams of an art renaissance, like the one that began in Florence during the late Middle Ages. “I would like to live in a place where art is more of our lives, with people doing it, talking about it, living it.”