Lana Lopesi

Alana Marissa Lopesi is a New Zealand writer and critic. She has been published in multiple places in New Zealand and Australia, and has been an editor in chief at The Pantograph Punch. Her recent book Bloody Women is a series of essays which describes her experiences as a Samoan woman living in New Zealand.

Biography Lopesi is Samoan and is from Auckland, New Zealand, and currently based in Eugene, Oregon, where she is an assistant professor at the University of Oregon. Between 2017 and 2019 Lopesi was the editor-in-chief of The Pantograph Punch, a New Zealand online magazine.

In 2018, Lopesi worked with Sarah Biscarra Dilley (yak tityu tityu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash, Chicana), Freja Carmichael (Quandamooka), Léuli Lunaʻi Eshraghi (Samoa) and Tarah Hogue (Métis, Dutch Canadian) to develop The Commute, a series of exhibitions and programs at the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia.

Other places Lopesi has published in New Zealand include: Metro, North and South, Paperboy, Art New Zealand, HOME Magazine, Aotearotica, Bulletin, E-Tangata and The Spinoff.

In 2021, Lopesi obtained a PhD at the Auckland University of Technology, supervised by Albert Refiti, Layne Waerea and Tina Engels-Schwarzpaul. The title of her thesis was Moana Cosmopolitan Imaginaries: Toward an Emerging Theory of Moana Art. Lopesi lectures at the School of Art and Design at Auckland University of Technology.

Residencies Lopesi has held residencies in Taipei, Taiwan and Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. 2019 – Transits and Returns, co-editor (Vancouver Art Gallery; Institute of Modern Art) 2021 – Bloody Women, published by Bridget Williams Books