Wednesday September 27, 2006
By TJ McNamara
(excerpt)

All the portraits are of New Zealand artists and family who have had some influence on Sampero. As friends they have been invited to submit some sort of written personal credo to accompany the portraits. The texts vary in interest but the paintings are consistently successful in capturing a likeness combined with a certain degree of idealisation.

Unity is conferred by the way the heads are all back-lit and the hair is consistently livened with dashes of red that suggest both blood and volcanic activity.

A special feature is the overpainting of the faces with the New Zealand coat of arms. This gives the appearance of a moko in some cases and certainly establishes a sense of Aotearoa as the home of these people.

The portrait of John Ioane, with a low viewpoint, and the finely modelled picture of Fatu Feu'u and the image of Camilla Samper, the artist's mother, are particularly fine. There are nearly 50 personalities here and together they have a real sense of community.

Galleries of paintings of prominent locals have been attempted before but never on this scale or as successfully.