One of New Zealand’s best known Maori artists, John Bevan Ford developed a distinct style of art using coloured inks and liquid acrylic and occasionally coloured pastels and graphite. Much of his art was inspired by his own mixed heritage, and the weaving together history as well as the customary arts of raranga (weaving), taniko (ornamental weaving), whakairo (carving), kowhaiwhai (painted scrollwork) and korowai (woven cloaks).

A strong proponent of art education, John Bevan Ford worked at the interface of academic and artistic life. After attended Wellington Teacher’s College, he attended Dunedin College where he specialised in art training. He was an art lecturer at Hamilton Teacher Training College and moved to Palmerston North to join Massey University in 1974; in 1986, he introduced Maori Visual Arts into the Maori Studies programme.
 

John Bevan Ford’s work – as a traditional wood carver, sculptor, weaver and painter – can be seen throughout New Zealand including at Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland Art Gallery, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, The Dowse Art Museum and in the Palmerston North Square.

John Bevan Ford wanted to see Maori and New Zealand art win a place in the major galleries of the world.  His own art achieved this goal. In 1990, three years after becoming a full-time artist, John Bevan Ford presented a series of lectures about his work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York – the first New Zealand artist to do so. In 1998, he was artist-in-residence at the British Museum, London.

His work appears in the collections of the British Museum, (London), National Museum of Scotland (Edinburgh), Museum für Völkerkunde (Berlin), The Linden-Museum (Stuttgart), Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde (National Museum of Ethnology) (Leiden), Scheepvaart (National Maritime Museum of the Netherlands) (Amsterdam) and National Gallery of Australia (Canberra). US President Clinton was presented with a wool rug of his design. Commissioned major sculptures are in the Chinese cities of Changchun and Beijing.

John Bevan Ford lived in Ashhurst until his death in 2005.