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While many artists have been aware of the globalization of the arts scene since the late 1980s, this analysis of artists’ careers and writings on the contemporary arts in the South Pacific shows their unequal integration in arts circles. The profile of Oceanian artists that emerges suggests that they are primarily considered as representing their cultures, and hence only partly included in worldwide arts networks that are still mainly under Western dominance. Deconstructing this profile helps to shed light on contemporary mechanisms of artists’ legitimation in this part of the world.