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Growing up in Tītahi Bay, Porirua in the 1970s and 80s, artist Wayne Youle (Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Whakaeke, Ngāti Pākehā) saw a kindred spirit in The Karate Kid—the scrappy outsider who, under the calm guidance of Mr Miyagi, learns to channel cheek into discipline, and raw energy into mastery. But what happens when, one day, you look in the mirror and realise you’ve become the sensei? The student becomes the mentor, the mischief becomes method, and the cheeky kid now carries the weight of legacy, expectation, and time.
Back in Five surveys twenty years of Youle’s sculptural practice, charting the passage of time not just as a theme but as a material that shapes, stretches, and reframes meaning. The title itself carries a familiar promise—stepping away for a moment, only to return changed. Across two decades, Youle circles back to recurring motifs and questions, each time with new insight, humour, and bite.
With his trademark playfulness and wit, Youle tackles big ideas—masculinity, fatherhood, colonial legacy, and bicultural identity—while drawing on the humour and irreverence of his younger self. Schoolboy pranks meet sharp cultural critique, as playful surfaces give way to deeper reflections on identity, memory, and belonging.
Working across a broad range of media, Youle asks what it means to navigate multiple worlds: Māori and Pākehā, son and father, genius and dunce. What looks like a joke at first glance often contains a sting—a challenge to the tidy black-and-white narratives of history and identity. Here, Youle is both Karate Kid and Mr Miyagi—still throwing punches, but now from both corners of the ring.
Developed in partnership with The Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū, Back in Five brings together a major body of work by one of Aotearoa’s most bold and distinctive contemporary artists.
Text from Dowse website.
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Wayne Youle
Dear friend what can I do, to prove the warm affection I’ve always felt for you?, 2026
Gold coloured chain
Dimensions variable (individual works)
[Available]
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Wayne Youle
Pound Co. Cash and/or flesh accepted, 2012-2022
Mixed materials
2000 x 850 x 850 mm
[Available]
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Wayne Youle
Almanac, 2022
Found cedar ladder and steel brackets
600 x 390 x 600 mm
[Available]
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Wayne Youle
Speaks Softly Carries A Big Stick, 2009
Fishnet stockings holding cannonball from Taranaki land wars
1640 x 140 mm
[Available]
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Wayne Youle
Time has no healing powers when it comes to these poor souls, 2014-2015
Painted cast bronze
32 x 25 x 15 mm
[Available]
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Wayne Youle
OK...Who Soiled My Property!?, 2012-2025
Sculpted paper and woolen top hat
2000 x 850 x 850 mm
[Available]
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Wayne Youle
To Let, 2015-2025
Cast bronze
120 x 400 x 400 mm
[Available]
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Wayne Youle
The Saviour, 2012
Fibreglass, mahogany, leather, ply and electrical components
1310 x 1270 x 813 mm
[Collection of the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū]
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Wayne Youle
Easy Peasy, 2017
Sandblasted stone pile and foam balls
175 x 280 x 140mm
[Available]
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Wayne Youle
Softcock, 2011
Handsewn prison blankets
490 x 490 x 490 mm (ten pieces, each 160 mm)
[Available]
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Wayne Youle
I’ll be the one wearing the pink carnation, standing in the corner (sweating), 2017
Mixed materials
2000 x 850 x 850 mm
[Available]
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Wayne Youle
If dad says no, ask mum and if she says no ask her Majesty, 2010
22 yards of beef bone
[Private Collection]
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Wayne Youle
Of Similar Or Equal Weight, 2017
Mixed materials
1860 mm high
[Available]
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Wayne Youle
A trio of Taniwha (shared DNA), 2008-2025
Snooker balls, brass and timber
930 x 320 mm
[Private Collection]
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Wayne Youle
The Long Sleeper, 2018
Mixed media (plus stainless steel vent to be installed on wall)
550 x 1310 x 920 mm
[Available]
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Wayne Youle
The Nurturer, 2020
Mixed media
2240 x 4900 x 100 mm
[Available]
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Wayne Youle
Slowly but Surely II, 2012
Lacquer on fibreglass
1960 mm high
[Available]
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Wayne Youle
Piece of string, 2006
Handknitted acrylic wool
240 mm x variable length
[Private Collection]
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Wayne Youle
Genius, 2012-2013
Found walking sticks
120 mm x variable length
[Available]
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Wayne Youle
.454kg of what the fuck and who really cares, 2012-2013
Acrylic on canvas
300 x 300 mm
[Available]
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Wayne Youle: Back in Five: The Dowse Art Museum
Current exhibition
