Sam Hamilton

Sam Hamilton (Sam Tam Ham), is an independent working-class interdisciplinary artist from Aotearoa (New Zealand) of Pākehā (English settler colonial) descent.

Hamilton’s practice today operates more like an ecology than a discipline. Their work has existed in a wide range of contexts including the Converge 45 Biennial and Portland Art Museum in Portland, OR; Whitechapel Gallery London, Transmediale Festival Berlin, the NZ International Film Festival, a research station in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, an active volcanic island crater, a billboard, a functioning Shinto shrine in Japan, an anarchist squat in Athens Greece, and on the radio. Hamilton’s current focus is Te Moana Meridian, a multi-year project that includes a touring art exhibition, conference series, and full-scale experimental opera, to premiere this year with the Portland Art Museum, PICA, and Boom Arts. Says Hamilton,” Although performance-based, it critically, aesthetically, culturally, and institutionally has little to do with Opera or Theater. Rather it comes from and unequivocally belongs in the Contemporary Art context.” Their work has been recognized by Creative Capital, Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights award, and the New Zealand Art Foundation New Generation Artist Award.

Says PICA Artistic Director Kristan Kennedy: “Sam is a consummate collaborator. I can’t even count the many many many artists they have shared expertise, time and labor, creative input and friendship with. They represent the best in this region, and a unifying ‘style’ of Oregon artists which is not necessarily aesthetic but rather relational in practice. Their national and global reach along with the respect from regional peers, curators and institutions help bring visibility to this community and signify that Oregon is a home for artists who experiment, invent and comment on broader culture.”