Pati Solomona Tyrell

Pati Solomona Tyrell (born 11 August 1992) is an interdisciplinary artist from New Zealand who focuses on performance, videography and photography. Tyrell is a founding member of art collective FAFSWAG. In 2018 Tyrell became the youngest nominee for the Walters Prize, New Zealand's most prestigious contemporary art award, He relocated to Auckland to study a Bachelor of Creative Arts programme at the Manukau Institute of Technology, based in Otara, graduating in 2017. FAFSWAG is the first brown queer arts collective who have been significant in New Zealand. It was established in 2013. FAFSWAG is formed of nine Pacific and Māori artists: Jermaine Dean, Falencie Filipo, Tanu Gago, Tapuaki Helu, Elyssia Wilson Heti, Nahora Ioane, Moe Laga-Toleafoa, Tim Swann, Tyrell and James Waititi. They are known socially for Auckland's underground vogue ball scene and for collective interdisciplinary works based on transforming the visual representation of the Pacific queer brown bodied chronology within Aotearoa, New Zealand. In 2022, FAFSWAG participated in Documenta fifteen with site-specific works.

In 2018 Tyrell was nominated for the Walters Prize for Fāgogo, a video work subsequently purchased by Auckland Art Gallery.

Poetry composed by Her Majesty Queen Salote Tupou III. Fāgogo refers to the Fa'a Samoa word for spoken fables in a shared context. The receiver of a fāgogo displays the beauty of these fables then being passed down appropriating its meaning and making it their own. 2016: Talk That Talk, Fresh Gallery Ōtara Artists: Mahia Jermaine Dean, Sione Monū, Sam Ioane Samau, Jonathan Selu, Darren Tainue and Pati Solomona Tyrell 2016: Fāgogo, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki Artists: Pati Tyrell 2017: Fāgogo, St Paul St Gallery Three. Auckland University of Technology 2017: Lovers Rock, PIMPI KNOWS.COM 2020: Oracles, City Gallery Wellington

Awards 2018: Best in Fringe & Best visual or performance art 2018: Nominee for the Walters Prize. 2020: Awarded for interdisciplinary arts through the Arts Foundation Laureate As part of the queer Pasifika arts collective FAFSWAG. Tyrell received a 2020 Arts Foundation Laureate and exhibits his work at the Museum of Contemporary Arts Australia, Pingyao International Photography Festival, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.