Ryan Cassidy (Ngāpuhi, Te Rarawa, Ngaāti Kahu, Ngāti Kuri, Ngāti Whātua) is a Turi Māori (Māori Deaf) artist whose work explores identity, language, reclamation and belonging through the layers of Māori and Deaf worlds. Born and raised in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), Cassidy is now based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington), where he has lived since November 2025.
Drawing on decades of lived experience, multiple art styles, sign languages, whakapapa exploration and access to te ao Māori, Cassidy’s practice responds to the ongoing challanges faced by Turi Māori including lack of awareness, limited support, tokenism and the ongoing impacts of colonisation.
His work is bold, deeply personal and grounded in lived reality. At its core, Cassidy’s practice is about creating space: space for Turi Māori stories, visibility, language and tino rangatiratanga within contemporary art.
Māori Deaf Vol. 1: Journey is Ryan Cassidy’s first solo exhibition after a long hiatus from art practice and public showing. This deeply personal body of work explores what it means to be both Māori and Deaf in Aotearoa. Through painting, text, sign language, street influences, and mixed visual style, the exhibition reflects a journey marked by identity, determination, heartbreak, loss of hope, resilience and achievement.
The works confront the realities of moving between Māori and Deaf spaces while carrying the weight of invisibility, exclusion, and cultural disconnection. At the same time, the exhibition celebrates survival, whakapapa, resistance and the strength of Turi Māori identity.
Rather than creating art for comfort or decoration, Māori Deaf Vol. 1 speaks honestly from lived experience. Opening space for kōrero, wero (challenge), and visibility for Turi Māori voices within contemporary art.