Tributes are pouring in for a New Zealand-based Cook Islands artist, Jim Vivieaere, who has passed away after a long illness.
Jim Vivieaere was a pivotal figure in the visual arts community for more than 20 years and was highly regarded as an artist, curator and advisor.
The Bottle Ocean exhibition at the Wellington City Gallery in 1994, which showcased New Zealand's first exhibition of contemporary Pacific Art, is deemed to be one of his best.
A close friend and arts peer, Albert Reifiti, says he knew Jim Vivieaere since the late eighties, and he will be remembered for his ground-breaking exhibitions, his vast networks and his support for Pacific arts.
"We often say in Samoan, the notion of the va, e Teu le va. That's things that pass between our relationships. Well we often, as artists and people in the arts community, we expect these things to come to you. Well Jim was that thing that moved between everyone. He was the person who teu le va, the person who embellished all our relationships."
Albert Reifiti.
The funeral will take place at the University of Auckland's Fale Pasifika complex on Sunday.
