Sheyne Tuffery has been exploring his Samoan and Celtic heritage over the course of his three decade career as a visual artist. While studying printmaking, he found woodblock printing, which set him on a stylistic path that he still references in his multimedia works today.

In 1995 he was featured in an exhibition of notable Pacific artists at Auckland City Art Gallery, and soon after he gained a Masters degree in printmaking from Auckland University (2000). It was during these experiences that Sheyne began to develop an approach rooted in architecture and urbanisation, which he explored through the lens of the Pacific and on the medium of paper in what he coined ‘paper architecture’.

In recent years, Sheyne has turned his focus to spirituality and the sky, while he was an artist in residence at the Carter Observatory in Wellington (2019). His work is futuristic as well as dreamlike, as he ties nature and science through art.

In Feather Composition (2019), he uses feathers to create a landscape, turning the natural world in on itself through printmaking. In Siapo Avatar (2015), he deconstructs a tapa cloth motif through a night sky lens, folding Contemporary Pacific elements into one another.

In Tapa Orb (grey) (2018), he creates an enhanced study of Samoan tapa cloth practice (siapo) within a glowing orb that adds dream-like, contemporary aesthetic. In The V’aa (2021), an array of features echo boats floating about on the water, turning the natural world in on itself through printmaking.