2024 Artists A to C
Sumaya Abrahams is an 18-year-old Kiwi-South African artist born and raised in Auckland. She brings her unique semi-realistic compositions to life with a rough, imperfect artistic process, each piece drawing inspiration from ideas of strained and flawed connections. With a passion for blending pencil and paint mixed media,she creates captivating pieces that draw the viewer's attention into the finer details of her work, using darker tones to emphasise certain elements. Sumaya has already exhibited in previous years at the Art Show as a Mt Albert Grammar School student.
Auckland-based artist Michael Anderson graduated from Hungry Creek Art School in 2011 with an interest in action painting and abstract expressionism. He paints primarily on plywood using oil and water-based house paints, sometimes incorporating foil, wood offcuts or chunks of dried paint, frequently exposing the ply underneath with polyurethane. Paintings are always done on the floor, often composed in a thick pool of poured polyurethane. He uses dripping and pouring, with an eye for material interactions, waiting for the paint to reach a certain viscosity for the desired effect to take place. Michael has exhibited in solo and group shows throughout the Auckland region since 2012.
Ronald Andreassend’s creativity blurs the boundaries between visual arts, craft, design and fashion, resulting in an output which ranges from artwork, sculptures, jewellery, costume, homewares and residential fixtures, to organising artist collaborations and events. Ronald`s ideas are drawn from family stories, his culture, interests, experimentation and objects that sometimes have no reason to exist other than to amuse and intrigue. Over the last two years he has been exploring Pacifica Auckland in culture, art, society and politics. It has been an eye opener, delving into areas that few are privileged to see. He has participated on many projects, as a photographer, artist and designer as well as simply volunteering or enjoying the warmth of Pacific culture and people.
Natasha Armstrong lives locally in Mt Eden and is currently studying Biological Sciences and Fine Arts at the University of Auckland. She draws much of her inspiration from the idea that life thrives through movement. Painting has always been a process of movement to her, where materiality is emphasised through paint drips and strokes. This removes a degree of control from her hand, contributing to her style in these artworks. These scapes capture simple, everyday, elemental movements.
Alex Astbury is an emerging Auckland artist whose primary medium is photography. With the natural world as both inspiration and subject, Alex’s work often features botanics, captured and re-presented in a way that invites the viewer to pause, reconsider and view them in a different light. In FATHOM: The HYDRANGEA DROWNED series, multiple elements combine in dazzling, random arrangements, resulting in mesmerizing images with a dense, dream-like quality. A shifting, kaleidoscopic sense disorientates and intrigues, offering portals into otherworldly realms, landscapes that are hinted at and places as evocative as illustrations in children’s books. Colours emerge and dissolve, sometimes drenched with a swirling inky darkness, while at other times the image is softer, formed from chalk and watercolour.
Emma Bass is an established Auckland-based photographic artist whose floral compositions inspire metaphorical and narrative interpretations. They are regularly exhibited in leading art galleries in New Zealand and internationally, and held in private collections throughout the world. She is the only New Zealand artist to have been invited to exhibit at the prestigious Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London twice, in 2016 and 2022. Emma seeks to cultivate a sense of hope, and her work addresses a human psychic need for the uplifting power of beauty. This connects with her earlier career as a nurse, where she sought to heal and comfort. In her own words: “Flowers are one of the most universal forms of beauty. They are tokens of love, a natural expression of the environment. Everywhere in the world, flowers are cherished in some form. What's more, they are scientifically proven to improve mental health and wellbeing. Flowers have power!”
Blake Beckford completed his Bachelor of Design and Visual Arts in 2013. Since then, he has travelled the world, started a family and is now regularly making new art as well as working as a picture framer. Blake currently experiments with hand-painted, digitally-drawn, laser-cut shapes, utilising colours, shadows, distance and light to create fantastic, multi-layered artworks.
Tanya Blong is a Tāmaki Makaurau-based artist. She graduated from Hungry Creek Art and Craft School in 2006, majoring in painting and sculpture, followed by further studies at Browne School of Art. Tanya's figurative work speaks to a moment in time; hot summer days provide the backdrop to society at leisure. Focussing on the state of being idle, her art is a dual commentary - an immersion into a slow sensory world, while also floating ideas of the luxury of time, access and inclusion. Tanya's paintings feature fictitious portraits that explore emotion and memory depicted in colour, form, pattern and light; inner landscapes shaped by the human experience. Her work is held in the Arts House Trust collection.
Michele Bryant explores belonging in her work, expressing ideas which relate to decision-making and how a sense of belonging to a location is tested or strengthened. Aeroplane forms are a recurring motif in Michele’s art, symbolising the process of relocation. She uses a range of media such as hand drawing, wood, metal printmaking and resin moulding, selecting the medium best suited to the concept behind the work. Michele’s work is represented in private and public collections nationally and internationally.
Julia Budden is an Auckland-based artist who came to New Zealand from South Africa. Her recent abstract works are inspired by the light reflected on water and tidal swirls and eddies, as rivers and sea meet on the beach. Julia paints mostly in acrylic with added oil pastel and mixed media. She loves to experiment abstractly as well, with cyanotype processes that capture her deep love of plants and the colour blue. In her art, she tries to capture the sense of peace, 'home', familiarity and freedom evoked by the experience of being in wild places teeming with nature.
Robbi Carvalho is a multi-disciplinary artist. Originally from Brazil, she has lived in Portugal and Angola and has chosen Aotearoa as her home. Her background as an architect and jewellery designer has honed her vision and technique, allowing her to construct a dream-like universe. Known for elaborate details, precise lines and an intuitive colour palette, her work reflects a unique identity. Robbi portrays visual narratives from a female perspective, creating art which combines women and nature in a single entity. She captures real bodies, conveying the diversity and subjectivity of being a woman.
Born and raised in London, Patrick Casey attended Harrow School of Art. He paints the London he grew up in and remembers, a city where there was rubbish spilling across the streets, football violence, the Notting Hill riots, punk music, strikes and a general sense of discontent. It was dirty, violent and boozy, but it was exciting. With hindsight has come his realisation that this was a period of enormous societal change which started with the arrival of Margaret Thatcher and all that followed. However, for Patrick, painting is not an exercise in nostalgia, but an impulse that he is repeatedly drawn to.
UK-born Jamie Chapman settled in Whangārei in 1989. In 2005 he moved to Auckland to study at Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design, completing his master’s degree at Elam School of Fine Arts in 2012. Jamie was awarded the University of Auckland Joe Raynes Scholarship in 2012, and in 2013 was the winner of the National Youth Art Award run by ArtsPost in Hamilton. His work is held in collections which include the Arts House Trust.
Clinton Christian is an award-winning contemporary New Zealand artist who creates unique, bold and relatable modernist works. He uses a variety of styles, themes and mediums, putting his own personality into his art to inspire happiness, curiosity and memories. Clinton’s works are generally large canvas paintings or wood panel and resin pieces, some of which approach sculpture. His work has a very graphic style featuring composition, colour and contrast. Recently Clint has developed a new collection of work dubbed 'Retrovision' which dives into his youthful nostalgic memories of the 1970s and 1980s, also referencing modern themes or local pop culture.
Brenda Clews is a self-taught artist. She has been passionate about art since childhood and is driven to learn more about her craft. Revelling in the freedom to experiment, painting elicits almost childlike wonder and excitement in her. It has also become a way to remember and document beautiful moments and imaginings; Brenda’s best work is inspired by focusing on the present and mindfulness. Her style continues to evolve, but she still uses thick lush textures with gestural brushstrokes to create a more abstracted final work. She works with slow-drying acrylics, which allow a longer manipulation timeframe and are closer to oils in texture, colour and saturation. Each piece has multiple layers and develops organically. The observer is invited to feel an emotion and draw on their own connection with nature rather than just looking at the image or colour. Brenda’s work has been purchased by collectors around the world and throughout Aotearoa.
Vicki Comrie-Moore has been working with clay since she was 11 years old, when she was first taken by the medium and by sculpture. Her style is free-flowing and natural, using flora and fauna as inspiration, with splashes of colour glazes and other mediums bringing the pieces to life. Vicki is largely self taught and enjoys the freedom of working from a home studio on her farm.
Heidi Cooney is a contemporary artist and mother of three young children who lives and works in Mt Eden. She is inspired by the natural beauty of Aotearoa New Zealand and loves to bring her appreciation of nature indoors through her landscape and botanical paintings. She enjoys the challenge of capturing the natural world and her paintings convey a sense of peace and gratitude for the beautiful environment in which we live. Heidi paints primarily in acrylics on canvas and wood panel, loving the versatility of the medium.
Bryn Corkery finds inspiration in places, issues, and memories from the local landscape. Using a diverse range of media allows the use of a wide range of effects - some controlled and some not. Bryn's ceramic bird tiles find their home within frames reminiscent of phone screens, a contemporary twist that bridges the past and the present.
Shirley Cresswell is a fulltime artist who will soon be based in Taupiri. Many of her paintings are inspired by New Zealand's beautiful beaches and create a sense of almost being able to walk into a painting, feel the sand and the light breeze, and see the waves crashing onto the shore. Shirley is self-taught and has developed her own style and technique painting photo realism in acrylics. Applying paint in many layers, she achieves a realist style that captures light in her work.
Award-winning artist Stephanie Crisp resides in Lyttelton on Banks Peninsula, an area which provides constant inspiration. After a career as an art teacher, she now spends her time painting, running workshops and teaching small groups. Using strong acrylic colour, Stephanie's work is beautifully constructed and balanced, often telling stories of places she has travelled to and lived in. She sometimes enhances her work with collaged materials and uses embroidery to intensify its surface quality.
2024 Artists D to G
Whangārei-born Justine d'Anvers began her creative journey as a child, always drawing and painting. Taught the basics of perspective drawing by a generous primary school teacher after school, she continued to study art through her school years, attending life drawing classes at Northland Polytechnic and then at the Quarry Arts Centre. She completed a Certificate in Graphic Design at Auckland Institute of Technology and travelled for a number of years in her twenties, meeting her husband, Clay, in the Whitsundays. They have lived in the Whangārei Heads since 1997, where they have raised three children. Painting sometimes had to make way for family and business needs, but Justine always looked through the eyes of a painter and would get up at 4am at times to fit it into the working day. She also took part in art groups which fed her inquiry into the journey of painting. She is now embracing the freedom to fully explore her ideas through paint and excited to be taking the next step, committing to a more dedicated practice and making full use of her studio at Parua Bay. Justine was a Northland Telecom Art Awards Highly Commended Finalist in 1997 and 2001, won the Art Show North competition in 2011 and the Art Show North People's Choice Award in 2012. She has exhibited at The Lake House in Takapuna in 2014 and in several group shows, including the Outsider Art Fair.
Ann Davenport is an Auckland-based artist, with a Bachelor of Media Arts degree majoring in illustration and graphic design. Although she works mainly as a designer, her passion is for making paintings and collages inspired by her favourite landscapes and beaches around New Zealand. Her goal is to capture a sense of place in a unique and contemporary way. Colours, shapes, light and shade are emphasised in an attempt to intensify her view and memory of ‘place’. Ann experiments with hard and soft edges as she endeavours to find a balance between a graphic and painterly language.
Mariska de Jager is a full-time ceramic sculptor. Married with two children, she emigrated from South Africa 12 years ago, and recently settled in Cambridge where she works from her studio. Mariska has always been intrigued by the human form and its flaws - she loves the lines of the eyes and the way a person’s mouth changes along with their emotions. Every face tells a story, whether it reflects fear, despair, love, hope, anxiety or dreams. She aims to capture these emotions through her work and for the viewer to identify with them. All of Mariska's work reflects her own feelings and experiences. She addresses the subject of mental illness and the effects it has on us; human fragility as well as strength is a recurring theme in her pieces.
Originally from the South Island, Ginny Deavoll moved to the Coromandel to work as a sea kayak guide almost 20 years ago. The peninsular coastline is an artist's paradise and she now lives there permanently with her husband and two sons. A full-time painter for ten years, Ginny aims to connect people with our great backyard through her work. She hopes that its vibrancy, energy and movement inspires people to discover it for themselves - whether by doing a local bush walk or snorkel trail, or going deeper into the wilderness. She feels that the more people experience, the more they care, increasing the likelihood that this special environment will be there for future generations to enjoy.
Ekaterina Dimieva is an Auckland-based abstract artist. She completed a Master of Fine Arts at Elam at the University of Auckland in 2020. She was a finalist in the Molly Morpeth Canaday Awards in 2021, the National Contemporary Art Awards in 2022 and the Estuary Art and Ecology Awards in 2022 and 2023. Her most recent solo exhibition was held in November last year at the Malcolm Smith Gallery. Her work is included in several national and international collections and was part of 'Tendencies in Painting', a London Paint Club exhibition in 2022.
Victoria Dowall lives in North Canterbury and paints quirky and fun pieces using te reo Māori. Her mahi references popular culture and graffiti through a Kiwi lens. Inspired by Andy Warhol, she uses hand drawn and cut stencils, pops of colour and spray paint, often painting cats and fruit. Each piece, however, is an original as she enjoys the imperfect result of the handmade. Victoria exhibits nationwide, including at the Christchurch and Wellington Art Shows.
Catherine Dunn is a full-time professional artist based in Kerikeri. She has been a practising artist for over three decades and her main areas of interest are painting, sculpture and printmaking. She works in acrylic, oil and cold wax mediums as well as inks and charcoal. Catherine uses printmaking techniques to extend and add variety to her work, and also enjoys building assemblage sculpture from recycled wood and metal as a departure from painting. She is motivated and inspired by her connection to the environment and people around her and how they shape the various layers of awareness and growth within herself and others. She believes artistic progression expands in direct proportion to one's courage. With this in mind, she tries to increase her understanding of materials and techniques by taking the time to experiment, enabling her to discover new ways of working, a process essential to her practice and development as an artist.
Stu Duval is a professional artist, illustrator and author. Born in the shadow of Christchurch Cathedral, he now resides on the Hibiscus Coast in Auckland. He draws his inspiration from the landscape and bird life within it, often capturing the latter in a whimsical, surrealist manner.
Rosemary Eagles lives in Mt Eden, Auckland. Throughout her 30 years of painting, she has been inspired by the varied landscape of New Zealand. Since graduating from Whitecliffe School of Art & Design, she has explored this landscape from the clouds above us to the strata below our feet, with land and seascapes in-between. Pushing the boundaries of paint techniques and using expressive paint strokes gives her work an element of freedom.
Susan Edge paints in acrylics, mixed media and collage. Her recent fluid work is bright and loose, incorporating various collage elements. She exhibits in group shows and has had several solo exhibitions.
Florence Egasse is a Christchurch-based self-taught artist who has always had the need to create. As a child, she discovered art in the galleries and museums of Paris, but it was her time studying composition and technique in Bayeux that truly sparked her interest in painting. She went on to explore acrylic painting in London. Florence paints striking abstracts, vibrant ensembles of florals and contemporary landscapes. Drawing inspiration from nature, children's drawings, travel and interior design, her work is experimental and intuitive, a bold and playful style which is constantly evolving as she sets no limitations on her creativity. Each of her paintings is unique and joyous.
Originally from the UK, Lucy Eglington has lived and painted in New Zealand for over 20 years. Her work has a fable-like quality: using the narrative of creatures and humans to tell human stories. She is especially interested in the duality of situations - as in life, there are many sides to any situation, depending on your point of view. Working mainly in oils, Lucy uses traditional painting techniques to tell these layered stories. At first glance they seem reminiscent of a childhood fairy tale, magical and out of time, but then go on to reveal a much more honest narrative about human nature. They are beautiful and complex at the same time, and raise as many questions as they answer. Lucy has works in collections worldwide, and exhibits both here and internationally.
Fiona Ehn is a mostly self-taught New Zealand artist based in Rodney, north of Auckland. She creates beautiful, unique, mixed-media artworks which have lots of texture, bold colours - and injections of humour. Fiona describes her style as contemporary, informal, feminine and a little quirky, and she is continually exploring new ways to bring further texture and interest into her constantly evolving repertoire. Fiona aims to produce art that brings a smile to the face of the viewer. Her work is held by local galleries and she has also exhibited in community exhibitions locally.
Val Enger’s paintings are inspired by the tumultuous nature of the New Zealand landscape. She enjoys the way colour and form vie with each other, creating natural compositional rhythms. Colour profoundly affects all aspects of her life, especially emotions and moods, and she aims to reflect this in her paintings. Organic forms and shapes are apparent to Val everywhere, connecting her to nature. The essential, biomorphic forms of the land evoke freedom and an opportunity to play and explore, in the search for a visual ‘truth’ that finds its place between the observed and the deeply personal, transitory nature of experience. Val combines a process of application with a reductive approach that, through editing, moves the work into an autonomous space of individual expression.
Inge Flinte is a Melbourne-based abstract artist. She draws inspiration from her background as the daughter of immigrant parents and her experience living in five different countries. The concept of home is a central theme in Inge's work. She begins by taking notes, collecting the essence of the world in all of its myriad forms - marks, shadows, colours, and textures - which inform her creative process. Working primarily on canvas, Inge uses pigment, acrylic, oil pastels and paints, often incorporating natural dyeing techniques as a base layer in her work. Committed to environmental sustainability, she includes in her studio practice botanical dyeing, removing acrylic from wastewater and making her own paint from pigment. Inge’s work has been exhibited in Japan, America, the UK and New Zealand.
Arwen Flowers is a Tāmaki Makaurau-based artist who graduated in 2024 with a Master of Visual Arts in painting. She investigates our intimate relationship with environmental surfaces through remembered body actions, close touch and borrowed colour. The topography of her works feels seductive and familiar, featuring messy, organic surface imperfections. The paint records and dictates her actions as she adds and removes material deposited in splashes, smears, puddles and sprinkles, focusing on moments of gestural intervention that question the power balance between chaos and control. Arwen's work is in collections in New Zealand and overseas.
Hazel Foot lives in Auckland. She paints expressionist landscapes intended to prompt the viewer to recall personal experiences with nature. Her inspiration comes from the natural environment, perhaps beginning with a photograph or memory which is developed to depict landscapes unspoiled by human interference, emphasising the role of nature in wellbeing and the importance of conservation. She builds up her work using layers of acrylic paint to produce texture and depth, focusing on the use of colour and light to create atmosphere.
Vicki Fraser is a self-taught artist who works mainly with oils on aluminium to create art that brings joy, treasures a moment, and adds something special to a space. She works in a painterly way with thick, flat brushes which leave juicy brush strokes. Areas of flat colour give her paintings a modern, minimal feel while still portraying a recognisable subject in a creative way. Vicki's colour palette is inspired by the stunning landscape of New Zealand: the warm, earthy neutrals, muted blue tones of the sea, soft greens of the bush - with an occasional zingy pop just for fun.
by a desire to explore the threefold intertwining of nature, humanity and creativity. Jocelyn expresses an openness and freedom in her semi-abstract landscapes and enjoys both the spontaneity of acrylics and the ancient integrity of working with wax in her encaustic works. She indulges in playful spontaneity, leaning heavily on her feelings to freely express what flows through from her day to day encounters. Jocelyn exhibits her work throughout New Zealand.
Deborah Fuller has been an artisan since 2000 and currently resides in Little River on Banks Peninsula. Her work is immediately recognisable for its unique style and its blend of photography and mixed media painting. Captured moments of light and cast shadows are combined with textured landscapes of turquoise blue and burnt umber, frequently accompanied by a theme of nostalgia and recollection. Settings which feature dwellings, vacant chairs and objects convey a story of calm and stillness with an underlying tone of ambiguity, inviting the viewer to lend their own interpretation.
Anita Gate is a fine artist based in Auckland. She has been painting since 1996 and has worked in many different mediums and subjects, with a slick, attractive style which adds a strong note to any decor. Anita has shown her work in New Zealand and overseas. Having presented three solo shows and participated in many group shows, her sought after work is instantly recognisable.
Sarah Gauntlett is a teacher, graphic designer, illustrator and maker of things. Brought up in the Bay of Plenty, she has a Bachelor of Media Arts in Graphic Design and Photography and now resides in sunny Oratia, West Auckland. Inspired by the intricate patterns found in fabrics, nature and graphic design, she plays with the fluidity of intertwining forms using textiles, paint and digital media. Sarah's latest work explores connection and kinship, playing with the movement of colour, form, fantasy and line to create soft abstract textural compositions.
Matakana-based artist Jody Hope Gibbons is a contemporary abstract painter. Her practice explores colour, gesture, layering and light effects. Working in mixed media, she incorporates a range of materials in her pieces from acrylic paint to crayon, rust, inks, leaf and varnish. Jody’s current body of work explores the materiality of paint, pushing the boundaries of traditional painting practice and techniques. Ever-changing and currently becoming colourful, more gestural and bolder, this work retains its recurring reference back to the land. She credits her style to her early career in the design field; having completed a range of series, each piece she produces offers strong design elements and recognisable compositions that give her work cohesion.
Ulemj Glamuzina is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Tauranga. In her art practice she explores the boundless potential of mixed media, embracing the intricacy and depth that layering brings to her work. Through her exploration in charcoal, ink and other mediums, Ulemj strives to convey the depth and intensity of resilience, honesty and strength that permeate the human experience and the natural world. Drawing inspiration from her travels and personal encounters, Ulemj is spontaneously attracted to the complex, raw emotions etched onto the faces of individuals, and the extraordinary beauty of the landscapes that surround us.
Warkworth artist Pauline Gough is a self-taught expressive painter. Painting and exhibiting since 2010, her artworks are largely painted alla prima in a deliberate attempt to keep the art fresh, lively and not overworked. A reference photo may be a starting point, but will often be put to one side halfway through the painting process to avoid being controlled by colour and a likeness at the expense of freedom of expression and a spirited approach. Her paintings often have a country theme, reflecting her farming background. Pauline's works are held in private collections in New Zealand and around the world.
Julie Green is a multimedia artist who lives locally in the Mt Albert Grammar School area. Her work encompasses painting, sculpture, and photography. In her latest series, she pays homage to the art of still life, immortalising transient moments. Through her work, viewers are invited to immerse themselves in vignettes which teem with life's essence, while seamlessly transitioning into the realm of abstract painting.
2024 Artists H to L
Wendy Hannah (English, Ngāti Awa, Te Arawa) is an Auckland-based contemporary artist educated at Elam. In her practice she has focused on working with colour, reflective/refractive materiality and recently, light. Wendy’s new series of installations echo her upbringing by the sea with its ever-changing dispersive prism. Inspired by tukutuku, the traditional Māori craft which features weaving and binding and also symbolizes the whānau, she presents it in its most abstract form, an ‘X’. Wendy adds a further traditional element by making her own paint and gives her forms dynamic hues and coloured shapes, creating works that weave together tradition, place and ideology. The signature ‘X’, with its vibrant perspex panels, reflects and refracts the surrounding environment like a kaleidoscope of mirrors, creating beacons of light akin to a Fresnel lighthouse lens. This new, immersive series captivates, morphing continuously from day to night.
Levi Hawken is a New Zealand artist and sculptor who began his career in the mid-1990s graffitiing the walls of Auckland City. Most of his graffiti work is no longer visible, yet its influence continues in his more traditional paintings. Over the last two decades, Levi’s work has moved from public walls and spaces to more private, conventional settings. He has expanded his medium and subject matter through painting, drawing and sculptural work to ensure that more permanent keepsakes of his art exist. Now working primarily with cast concrete, glass and metals, he creates interacting forms and voids. Levi is heavily influenced by Brutalism, urban architecture and a desire to express an appreciation for the universe’s unknown forces through symbols and monolithic sculptures worthy of reverence.
Michael Hawkins is a Melbourne-based New Zealand artist. His practice is currently divided into two specific areas: limited edition works and original paintings. Both aspects of his practice address how meaning can be generated from the visual interaction that takes place between sign and signage - between the familiar and the unknown, through common-place motifs such as a snake or a lump of wood, or more ambiguous imagery creation and juxtaposition. Michael’s limited-edition artworks are drawing-based, utilising silkscreen printing and occasionally, painting processes. While these works are concerned with individual themes or subjects, they are most often busy, employing image saturation strategies to question the surfeit of information which we are assailed with on a daily basis through media. In 2020 Michael received the Parkin Drawing Prize Merit Award for ‘Student Debt’.
Natalie Holland is a Wellington-based textile artist who produces bright and colourful textural pieces that depict the beautiful designs and patterns used in hiapo (Niuean tapa cloth), an important part of her Niuean heritage. She makes her pieces using a punch needle, a technique that traces its history back to nineteenth century rug hooking. Natalie’s work features both botanical and geometric elements in vibrant and often unexpected colour combinations.
John Horner is an Elam graduate from the 1960s and was a student of Colin McCahon and Garth Tapper. A retired painting lecturer, he paints expressive landscapes. He has been involved with Artists in Eden for over 30 years and is a regular contributor to the Mt Albert Grammar School Art Show.
Karlalise Horstmans is an Auckland-based artist. She has sold works in Australia, the Netherlands and the United States of America over several decades and shown in New Zealand since 2020. Her powerful works range from large ethereal abstract works with symbolic elements to smaller representational works with botanical themes as well as still life, landscapes and portraits. Karlalise is inspired by nature and the perception of subtle realms of energy and light. She employs sensitive brushwork and an intuitive relationship with colour to convey impactful drama and intensity. Her works often include textual forms and lenticular effects, prompting the viewer to examine their own perspective and the subjective process of constructing and sharing meaning.
Tim Houghton's love of art led him to a degree in Fine Art (Painting) at Cardiff College of Art in Wales. He then moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where he lived and painted for 20 years, showing his work in a variety of solo and group shows. Over the years Tim has been amazed at how a cluster of interests - art, world cultures, travel and faith - have emerged repeatedly in various combinations, defining the direction of his life and work. His love of travel and world cultures has taken him to 60 countries, most recently Kashmir in India, Eastern Europe and the Pacific Islands. He is fascinated by the colour and vibrancy of the world’s cultures and peoples and the challenge of capturing these visual experiences on paper or canvas.
Kristin Hyde is a full-time Auckland-based mixed media and resin artist who enjoys working in various mediums. A passionate creative who also enjoys silversmithing and creating original art jewellery, she describes herself as an intuitive painter, and her art ranges from whimsical to abstract. Kristin has a passion for colour and texture and finds it humbling to watch people connect with her work. She is currently represented by several galleries in New Zealand, has exhibited in major public exhibitions, and her work can be found in homes around the world.
Carina Johanna is a mixed media artist who creates feminine abstract realism artworks using animals and florals to create paintings which uplift and inspire. Her art mirrors her own journey, capturing moments of self-discovery, empowerment, and the beauty of embracing one's true self. Through her work, she hopes to inspire others to embark on their personal journey and to bring to light the importance of nurturing their spirits with love, acceptance, and authenticity. The use of many layers gives her work great depth, while expressive brushstrokes allow her paintings to come to life and move.
Bev Jones has been making domestic ware pottery for over 4 decades. Her passion for ceramics led to a 25-year career teaching the craft to adult students. She also trained as a florist in her sixties and loved the creativity of working with flowers. Bev returned to full time pottery over 6 years ago and is very pleased to see it enjoying a resurgence in popularity. In her practice, she especially enjoys wheel work and has become interested lately in hand work, making figurines and heads. Making all of her own glazes, each of her pieces is unique.
A small production potter with a penchant for vase making, Jacqueline Kampen's pieces range from the traditional to more quirky forms. Auckland-based and a member of Auckland Studio Potters, her vases can be displayed on their own or in a group. Using stoneware clay, all of the vases are made on the wheel, glazed and high-fired, making them ideal to hold water for fresh flowers.
An artist for over 35 years, Helen Keen works from her West Auckland home studio using painting techniques she developed as a ceramicist. She manipulates texture using encaustic wax, mixed media, acrylic and oil, exploring abstraction, colour, gestures and mark making. Drawing on Claude Monet’s concept of “the illusion of an endless whole”, Helen’s work is impressionistic and free-flowing, exploring deeper layers and new possibilities while resisting rules and boundaries. Encaustic wax drives her art practice: an amazing, unpredictable and little used material made from beeswax and tree resin. Heating it is pivotal to the blending of colours and the creation of textures and expressions, a process of revealing, covering and uncovering with scratching and sgraffito, embedding and transferring images and objects. She uses encaustic techniques in her latest floral series, painting in molten wax and blending with flame rather than brushwork alone.
Jasmine Keir divides her time between her new home on Whangaroa Harbour and her beloved Southland. The warm tropical beaches contrast with the crisp magnificent mountains and skies; the largest boulder is made up of a tiny grain of sand, a new world juxtaposed between them. This is conveyed with ease onto a canvas of pristine copper. Jasmine loves to scrape, layer, collide and experiment with her art, emulating the cycles of a life well-lived.
Joanna King is inspired by a deep love for creative expression, global issues, and the stunning beauty of her homeland, Aotearoa. She is very appreciative when people can relate to a particular place that she has captured in her work. For Joanna, creating connection is key, in many ways, to her love of painting.
Toni Kingstone creates in her home studio overlooking Mount Pirongia in the Waikato. A full-time artist since 2019, her main body of work blends fluid acrylics, metallic pigments and resin. From her initial concept, she is led by the flow of the paint itself, guiding the direction with intuitive ‘action’ painting, adding or removing elements with more paint, palette knife or brushwork. She aims to give a New Zealand twist to her magical realist style by adding detail highlighting the everyday, expressed within fantastical dream-like landscapes. Toni’s works have been shown in a range of art shows and exhibitions and her paintings can be found in the homes of collectors and art lovers both in New Zealand and internationally.
Tatyana Kulida is a classically trained artist who has lived and taught in Florence. In New Zealand, she paints her inspiration from life, celebrating the magic of New Zealand people, scenery and flora. Tatyana paints portraits as well as personal work and teaches at her Anthesis Atelier in Wellington. She has sold work to patrons on four continents, has works in two museum collections, painted a former prime minister as well as Dame Jane Goodall, and has touched the lives of hundreds of students.
Keum Sun Lee is a Korean-born potter and ceramic artist. She has exhibited successfully in Korea, Austria, Croatia and New Zealand and won significant awards in New Zealand, Austria and Korea. In 2013 Keum Sun was selected as an artist-lecturer in the International Academic Program by the 7th Kaorean International Ceramic Biennale Korea. She was a finalist in the National Contemporary Art Award at Waikato Museum in 2014, won the First Prize and Merit Awards in the Greater Auckland Art Award & Exhibition in 2018, and won the Portage Ceramic Awards Premier Award in 2018. In New Zealand Keum Sun has exhibited in Sculpture OnShore, at the Arataki Visitor Centre and at West Coast Gallery in Piha. Employing 10th and 15th century Korean pottery techniques, she has adapted tradition and added colour to give her creations a contemporary twist. Keum Sun won the People's Choice Award in Portage Ceramic Awards in this year.
Vera Limmer lives on the west coast of Auckland, where she has been creating art for 10 years. She is drawn to combining sculpture and painting to create unique pieces, an approach which gives her the freedom to play and push in many directions. Her native New Zealand bird sculptures put together found items to create meaningful pieces with a message, art which reflects her thinking about the local environment. Vera also makes her own ceramic pieces which represent nature and small bugs.
2024 Artists M to R
Hamish Macaulay is an award-winning printmaker and painter based in Kāpiti. The varied subjects in his art repertoire range from conceptual abstracts to figurative landscapes and seascapes. With his love of nature and his surroundings, there is usually a nature-based narrative underpinning his work. Drawing on his background in graphic design, Hamish layers traditional and modern techniques to create fresh perspectives. His art is held in public collections (Te Papa Museum of New Zealand) and private collections internationally including the UK, Europe, USA, South Africa, and Australasia.
Teresa Mackay is a Wellington-based artist who specialises in portraiture and figurative painting. Her works celebrate the vibrant and colourful dance culture of her Polynesian heritage. Painting dancers on Pacific-themed vinyl records connects music and dance together visually; repurposing scratched vinyls symbolises the small act of reducing the amount of plastic waste in the Pacific Ocean. This is an important issue for Teresa, as the islands of the Pacific are vulnerable to climate change, including the small coral atoll of Pukapuka, the birthplace of her mother and final resting place of her grandmother.
Barbara MacKinnon works intuitively from memory and imagination, often absorbed by the process of examining light and space, employing a visual negotiation between fact and fiction. References to flora act as a metaphor for the transience of life and help her to discover new painting strategies. Barbara’s current investigative journey involves testing ideas, extending her mark-making vocabulary, and regenerating imagery.
Anita Madhav is an Auckland-based, self-taught realist artist who has been painting for over 20 years. Her passion for art stems from a lifelong love of creativity and exploration. Anita's work is characterised by a unique mixed-medium approach that showcases her versatility and willingness to experiment with new techniques and materials. She balances subtle shades, light forms, and spaces with colour and textural accents. Inspired by New Zealand flowers, her works vividly capture their beauty and essence, creating a sensory experience for viewers. Her art can be found in private collections worldwide, showcasing her talent and passion for her work.
Joanne Mahoney's mixed media works have evolved over the last few years and are now interdisciplinary mixed media. She uses watercolour, acrylics, oil and cold wax medium, collage and the many different processes used in printmaking to create unique artworks which are often collage. Joanne has lived in Asia and now her home is in the beautiful coastal environment of the Coromandel, both of which influence her work.
Zoë Marsden is a British-born artist who now resides in Seatoun, Wellington. After a formal art education in the UK, Zoë worked as a painter in the film industry for two decades, returning to her fine art practice in 2021. Her highly detailed urban landscape paintings feature derelict, abandoned or unusual buildings and structures left in the landscape which are no longer functional. She is drawn to their often forlorn, eerie, mysterious presence and aims to capture this atmosphere in her work. In January 2024, Zoë won the Craigs Aspiring Art Prize for her painting ‘The Lookout’.
Ignacia Martínez is an 18-year old Chilean artist who has lived in Auckland for six years. Her pieces draw inspiration from events in daily life; the meaning and detail of each work is accentuated through composition and lighting. Ignacia includes mixed media such as thread in her artworks to symbolise connections between people and objects. She has exhibited at the Mt Albert Grammar School Art show for the last three years and at the 2023 Pat Hanly Awards.
Bryony Matthew lives in Auckland, where the coastlines and islands of the Hauraki Gulf have inspired her navigation paintings for 20 years. Her work is informed by and abstracted from daily art-making and journaling while immersed in weather, sea and coast. Intuitive mapping and gestural mark-making are explored in transparent and solid layers of paint. Lines of depth or contour are at times carved onto surfaces with pencil, charcoal and oil stick.
Clare Matthews lives on the coast at Paremata, north of Wellington. Her partially abstracted land and seascapes are inspired by the natural environment and created using acrylic, collage and oil pastels. She is interested in exaggerating the beauty and drama of landscape through the imaginative use of colour, line and a variety of marks and shapes. Clare loves the constant dance with different media: adding, scraping back, scratching into, flooding with paint until led by what begins to emerge. The development of a painting may be slow or fast, but is always rewarding and part of an ongoing cycle where each work gently informs the next. Working from images inside her head rather than photographs, she prefers to enable the viewer to give the painting their own sense of place or memory, strengthening their connection to it.
Sarah Mauger is a specialist art teacher at an Auckland Intermediate school who paints from her home studio in her spare time. As well as producing commissioned work, she exhibits and sells in both Auckland and Wellington. Sarah draws on her background in fashion, makeup artistry and design to inspire her contemporary art work. An intuitive artist who creates unique pieces reflecting her passion for colour and texture, she uses modern street art techniques, incorporating textiles, spray paint and Indian ink to build layers. Her 2022 series represents the Kings, Queens, Princesses and Princes in your life, combining traditional values with the colour of modern living.
Jay McElwee is a Mt Eden based artist and Mt Albert Grammar School alumnus. He graduated from the school last year, and is now in his first year of a conjoint Fine Arts and Mathematics degree at the University of Auckland. His painting practice is based around the exploration of different compositions and aesthetics, and prioritises achieving an interesting visual experience. This exploratory process means that each piece evolves as he works on it, so the final product may be very different to the initial idea. This is his fourth year exhibiting at the Art Show and his first since leaving Mt Albert Grammar School.
Kate McLeod is a full-time painter from Ōtautahi Christchurch. She paints in a wide range of mediums including oil, acrylic, resin, pigments and metal leaf, and hand-crafts all of her timber frames. She graduated from Canterbury University with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Art History and Sociology in 2005. Kate has worked in a variety of roles - as a TV set designer, art teacher, advertising account manager, creative software executive and restoration project manager - which has allowed her to explore a wide range of creative disciplines. Along the way, Melbourne, Auckland, Ankara, London, San Francisco and Sydney have all been called home. She is now living her dream of creating rich, layered, gestural, abstract paintings. In 2022 Kate was awarded the Winsor and Newton Prize for creative use of materials at the Auckland Art Show and in 2023 was the New Zealand representative and keynote speaker at the Liangzhou Forum, a global art symposium involving artists from over 80 countries. She has exhibited widely throughout Aotearoa and her work is held in collections in New Zealand, the USA, China and the UK.
Hannah Middleton is an Auckland-based artist who holds a Bachelor of Design and Visual Arts. She believes that art should be accessible and has carved out a niche for herself in the vibrant world of abstract painting. Hannah creates murky landscapes using different brush techniques including dry brushing, the use of rags, and water sprays. The colours chosen for a piece are vital, influenced by her work as a soft furnishings designer, and meticulous planning goes into the colour combinations of each one. Hannah invites viewers to embark on their own visual journey and to delight in the abstract worlds she creates.
Judith Milner is a representational painter who lives and works in Auckland. She approaches nostalgic New Zealand scenes in a fresh and intimate way, strongly drawn to imagery that not only reminds her of her childhood, but also hints at a broader narrative beyond the frame. Kiwi architecture is a frequent artistic muse; using traditional techniques, the details and proportions are rendered with precision, respecting their historical craftsmanship. While this classes her work as realist, Judith is mainly seeking to capture the feeling of a particular location. A lawyer before switching to a career in art, Judith describes her paintings as a fusion of her analytical and intuitive sides.
Rachel Moore’s artwork beautifully captures the essence of nature through the delicate medium of watercolour. She has developed a style that seamlessly blends various techniques to create mesmerising landscapes. A blend of realism and abstraction, Rachel's compositions often feature rock and land formations, showcasing the inherent strength and beauty found in nature's most enduring structures alongside common man-made features which are revealed within the hand-drawn detailing. Her works offer solace and an opportunity to take a moment to pause and reflect; the viewer is invited to witness the beauty of landscapes, connect with the natural world, contemplate and explore locations that shape our memories of places or moments in time. She endeavours in her art to capture the dance between the elements and everyday life. Rachel received a placing at the Kaipara Art Awards in 2022, has been a finalist in several nationwide art awards, and is a regular participant in major local art sales.
Ayisha Mulgrew's latest series revisits collage to explore the interplay between light and shape with materials that might be perceived as ordinary – glitter paper and card. She has used oval formats as to her these seem a gentler way in which to present metaphors that could otherwise be more confronting. Observations of isolation and group think - even mass psychosis - have been sources of motivation for these recent collages.
Kāpiti based artist Cam Munroe has been honing her skills in acrylic and mixed media painting for over 33 years. Her work is inspired by ancient prehistory, the landscape and how it has transformed over eons, as well as by the spiritual nature of human existence on landscape past and present, informing our lives today. These new works are mixed media paintings which invite viewers to go on a journey. Lines and shapes meander, leading the eye through a maze of landscapes. Surrounded by the purity of white, a solitary shape bursts forth in luminous fluorescent colour, symbolizing moments of vivid clarity in the journey of her life. Lettering within the works whispers signposts and landmarks along the way. This series finds significance in embracing the unexpected in composition, meaning in chaos, and an appreciation of the journey of each canvas.
Janice Napper is a full-time contemporary artist. From her St Heliers studio she uses a rich high-gloss colour palette to generate vibrant artworks. The fluidity of this self-taught artist’s captivating works, pushing her polymer and resin mediums to the limit, exudes confidence. Like many artists she draws her subject matter from living things, often with the detail stripped away; an increasingly large proportion of her work, however, is now devoted to her love of form and the abstract. Her background in advertising is evident in her cutting-edge creative ideas, combined with a strong understanding of design and composition.
Vanessa Narbey lives in Auckland and has a Master of Fine Arts from Elam. A visual artist who has exhibited her work throughout New Zealand and internationally, she loves to explore visual perception in her semi-abstract paintings with layering of shapes, pigment and lines. There is a meditative quality to her work that creates ambiguity and intrigue. Two of her paintings are held in the Art House Trust Collection and she was a recent finalist for the London Art Biennale, the Walker and Hall Art Awards, the Tasman National Art Awards and Craigs Aspiring Art Prize. Vanessa was also Highly Commended for the Estuary Art and Ecology Prize in 2023.
Zoë Nash is a multidisciplinary artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau. She currently lives in coastal west Auckland, creating from her garden studio, and is actively involved in arts education. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Auckland University, adult teaching qualifications and a Master of Fine Arts from Whitecliffe School of Fine Arts. Her brightly coloured, celebratory works explore a slow and mindful accumulation of repeated and highly detailed mark making. Reflecting her love of nature, Zoë’s works increasingly draw on selected plant and flower motifs as inspiration. Frequently initiated by things seen, things spoken, or things remembered, narrative and nostalgia are also used to trigger a personal connection with viewers. Zoë has received finalist nominations in the Parkin Drawing Prize, the Trust Waikato Contemporary Art Awards, the Waiheke Community Art Gallery Small Sculpture Prize, and several finalist nominations in the Walker & Hall Waiheke Art Awards. She is also a recipient of the Whitecliffe Post Graduate Scholarship.
Christian Nicolson works as a full-time artist and is based in Auckland. He initially studied design and worked for several years as an art director in advertising roles in New Zealand and London. He loves to paint, sculpt, use photography, create installations, and make films. He has several works in the Arts House Trust collection and has been a finalist in the Wallace Art Awards six times. Christian has also featured in three of Denis Robinson’s art publications including New Zealand’s Favourite Artists Volume 2. He focuses on one solo exhibition a year and has also featured in many group shows such as Sculpture on the Gulf and NZ Sculpture OnShore. Christian has also made an award-winning feature film called ‘This Giant Papier Mâché Boulder is Actually Really Heavy’ (2016). Being creative is king.
For Danish artist Maria Owens, painting is about intuition and mindfulness. Through her abstract works she explores line, colour and shape, allowing each work to emerge and tell its own story. Inspired by her walks in the Waitākere Ranges, the gestural mark making and movements she uses work together to create a narrative which captures a moment in time. With each painting sold, a native tree is planted in the region the buyer is from via Maria's website.
Originally from Timaru, South Canterbury, Bridget Pahl is a Tāmaki Makaurau-based painter. She completed her Fine Arts degree at Ilam at the University of Canterbury in 2002. She teaches art at Epsom Girl's Grammar School under her married name Spencer and is the mother of two daughters. In her work she draws on influences from everyday life, landscape and fleeting observations, lingering over those that suggest ethereal connections.
Jolene Pascoe lives in Whangārei with her husband and daughter. She is a printmaker with a passion for screenprinting in alternative mediums and contemporary styles. Jolene's mahi toi is a reflection of traditional values stemming from both te ao Pākehā and te ao Māori whakapapa. Her artistic endeavors resonate with memories and nostalgic representations of Aotearoa, a significant aspect of her identity. These values extend to shaping her daughter's life amidst the pervasive influence of social media and screens in today's world.
Jane Puckey is a Auckland-based contemporary landscape painter celebrated in particular for her paintings of Northland. This area of exceptional natural beauty holds special significance and meaning for her as her family has lived in the Bay of Islands for generations, having settled in the area in the early 1800s. Jane’s inspiration arises from its clear blue skies, the ever-changing hues of the sea and the deep colours lying within the forms of the land, all of which provide a play of contrast in New Zealand’s brilliant light.
Spid Pye is an award-winning photographer. He was largely self-taught until he arrived in London in 1992 and attended the Drill Hall Art School. When he returned to New Zealand he won a study grant from the Ronald Woolf Memorial Trust, which he used to study graphic and photographic design. He loves theatrical subjects and life’s classic moments - life’s theatre is his true passion. Recently he has started exhibiting his work.
Roberta Queiroga is a contemporary visual artist from Brazil. With a background in architecture, she is interested in the relationship between the artwork, the viewer and the space. Before moving to New Zealand, she lived in Portugal and Japan; both countries are a prominent part of her identity and inform and influence her work. She incorporates and mixes elements of various techniques in her practice, working in symbiosis with the canvas in a way that allows emotion to flow spontaneously, with minimum interference when creating.
Katie Robinson is a painter whose artistic journey has been uniquely influenced by her scientific background. With a PhD in Chemistry from the University of London, she moved from a successful career as a nanotechnology-focused scientist and patent attorney into the world of art. This transition has brought a unique perspective to her work, allowing her to approach painting from a different, original viewpoint. Katie's artistic evolution continues to be driven by her scientific roots, as well as her upbringing in Otago and the Central Otago scenery. She is inspired by contrast - in colour, light, temperature and viewpoint - and is enjoying including both interior and exterior views in her more recent works.
When Lissy Robinson and Rudi Cole create, they are intimately connected to their common purpose of joy and honouring those who came before us. They are inspired by the aroha of their tūpuna and their journeys and stories. Crochet is the symbolic thread of aroha that connects us all. LIssy and Rudi’s work is a celebration of our people, our stories and way of life; together they are crocheting a world which holds the totality of their experiences and transforms trauma into deeply felt joy.
Formerly a lawyer, Mandy Rodger began painting at Browne School of Art in 2014 and has worked since 2018 from her central Auckland studio. Mandy’s paintings celebrate the essence of expression and gesture. Gesture is a shared human behaviour which expresses or emphasises an idea or emotion, augments communication, and helps us acquire understanding. Each of Mandy's paintstrokes embody the energy and fluidity of loaded brushes tracing movement. With dynamic gestural marks, she explores and navigates the materiality of the paint - its viscosity, fluidity, and colour - allowing the composition to emerge. Selected as a double finalist in the National Contemporary Art Awards 2019, a finalist in the National Cleveland Art Awards 2021, and the Craigs Aspiring Art Prize in 2022, 2023 & 2024, she regularly shows her work in solo and group exhibitions.
2024 Artists S to Z
Scott Savage is an Auckland-based sculptor and toy maker. His practice confronts the binary nature of 'Good and Awful; opposing notions for acknowledging value, identity, behaviour, and instinct.’ Scott's instinctive focus is to establish meaning through wit and tactility, while making playful realities of acute observation and fusion. He is an advocate for the lowbrow arts, underpinned by highbrow thinking.
Marcia Scott has been painting most of her life, mainly in acrylics but also in watercolours and oils. After studying art at school, she attended many workshops and painting courses with reputable artists and has gone on to show her work in numerous exhibitions, galleries and design shops throughout New Zealand. Marcia has won several awards for her paintings, as well as for wearable art and homeware. She loves using colour and creating layers and textures. Canvas is her preferred surface to work with, but she also enjoys using plywood, clay and fabric.
Originally from Hawke's Bay, Mat Scott has been creating for most of his life. He has been a painter, photographer, wood carver, metal bender and many other occupations which channel his inventiveness. He enjoys the variety of life and is sure that there are more creative iterations ahead for him. He loves surfing, family, friends and the environments in which he lives and works.
Liz Sharek graduated from Auckland University of Technology with a Master of Art and Design in 2008 and has lived in Matakana for the last eight years. Following her move north, she changed her focus from cast glass to ceramics. Liz’s forms are hand-built vessels which explore texture and surface by working directly with the materiality of the clay and glaze. She is particularly interested in the interface between a controlled outcome and allowing the materials their own voice. Liz has exhibited widely in New Zealand and overseas and her work is represented in a number of public and private collections.
SiLKA (Simple Living Kiwi) lives and works from a property overlooking the Kaipara Harbour in rural north west Auckland. His work is imagined and has been influenced by the landscapes and skies of New Zealand, the UK of his birth, and Ireland. Recently however, SiLKA's interest in pottery and glazing has been an increasing influence and led to a more immediate and bold painterly style.
Matt Sinclair is a self-taught painter and medical student based at Muriwai Beach. His paintings are naïve interpretations of the vast and lonely countryside and all of the strange characters that inhabit it. Using layers of paint and oil stick, Matt's paintings tell stories which are at once serious and light-hearted.
Anna Stichbury’s works are often bold and feature intense hues. Through the use of colour and texture she strives to create rich, vibrant paintings that have an immediate impact for the viewer. She is interested in our emotional response to a work. Anna has been painting and exhibiting for around 20 years and has had many group and solo exhibitions throughout New Zealand and Australia. She paints from her Wellington studio and supplies galleries nationally. Her paintings have been published in a range of New Zealand art calendars, diaries, articles and the book ‘New Zealand’s Favourite Artists’.
Philippa Stichbury lives in Mahurangi where she has recently established a studio. She uses a range of media including painting, ceramics, textiles and digital design. Her work reflects her appreciation of New Zealand's natural landscapes and the appeal of maps and charts. She enjoys exploring the ways in which colour, texture and pattern can be combined. Philippa’s artistic journey has also seen her gain recognition in the World of Wearable Art (WOW) exhibitions, in which she has designed and showcased eight garments.
New Plymouth resident Morgan Paige Taitoko effortlessly balances her roles as an artist and a graphic designer. Drawing inspiration from the aesthetic charm of 1980s and 1990s New Zealand architecture, her artistic style has emerged from the innovative use of textured, retro glass panels. Many hours are dedicated to crafting conceptual foundations through the arrangement of objects and the utilisation of obscured glass. Capturing the refracted interplay of light within these manufactured materials through photography, organic shapes come to life. These concepts are then skilfully painted onto canvas in layers, each successive one a process of design intuition and experience.
Anna Tang’s artwork embodies a sense of beauty and peace, exploring arrangements of urban nature and wild flora. Her everyday surroundings at her Auckland home studio inspire much of her work. Anna’s paint carvings are rich and intricate, featuring lines carefully carved into a thick base of layered acrylic paint. She uses her background in graphic design to create carefully considered and balanced pieces of art, with attention to detail and honed carving. She enjoys the simplicity of working in duotone and exploring what can be achieved with positive and negative space. Her art has a beautiful handmade aesthetic, the surface texture drawing viewers in to explore it up close and from a distance. Anna’s design philosophy is to create tranquil art pieces that can be cherished for years to come.
Leigh Tawharu is a mixed media artist who lives with her family in Kāeo, Northland. Her work is created via various techniques and mediums which seek to explore surface texture, pattern and design on paper. She is influenced by the surrounding landscape of maunga, native bush, fashion and textiles. Leigh has been interested in art and sewing all of her adult life, finding herself in the comfortable yet sometimes challenging intersection of craft meeting fine art. The cathartic practice of repetitive stitches forms rich textural narratives that speak to an inherent love of pattern, and provide a daily exercise in mindfulness.
Based in Palmerston North, MicheleTheobald draws inspiration from everyday interactions and human connections. Working primarily with acrylics, she uses colour and abstract forms to convey emotion and energy. Michele’s art remains open-ended, inviting viewers to interpret and connect with each piece personally. Through her work, she hopes to evoke familiarity and resonance, reminding viewers of the beauty in the world and the connections that bind us all.
Glen Turner is a self-taught Christchurch artist whose work centers around breathing new life into old materials. Using recycled timber, he creates captivating artworks which celebrate the natural hues, richness and texture of many types of wood. Glen's artwork has a history and tells a story, with materials salvaged from post earthquake demolitions, home renovations and other creative processes. He meticulously selects and combines these timbers through a unique and organic process which bypasses any drawing, sketch or plan. Through his art, Glen invites his audience to witness the transformation of unwanted materials into stunning evocative pieces that speak to the beauty of sustainability.
Shannon Turuwhenua is a Waikato-based, self-taught wood sculptor of Ngāi Tūhoe, Scottish and Irish descent. He creates his art from native and exotic timbers from around the country. Wherever possible, he uses reclaimed or recycled timber. Each piece is handcrafted and as a result, no two pieces are exactly the same. Shannon takes inspiration from objects in daily life, transforming them into larger pieces of art.
Irina Velman is a mixed media artist. She has travelled extensively and lived in several different countries. Irina has settled in the Waitakeres, but has a strong sense that her journey is continuing. There is always another distant shore, another chapter, another unknown layer of reality to be discovered. Her art embraces travel and transformation, expressed through seascapes and land patterns. Mixing acrylic paint with different polymers, pigments and resin, Irina creates unique textures and authentically down to earth work.
Makayla Vercoe is an Auckland-based artist and teacher. Her work is deeply influenced by research into her own identity and her connection to whakapapa. She connects the past and the present through her work, often delving into themes of cultural identity, memory, and belonging, inviting viewers to reflect on their connections to heritage. Makayla uses techniques reminiscent of the daguerreotype and collodion processes in her works. These methods imbue her work with a unique aesthetic quality, while also giving a nod to historical photographic practices.
Michelle Viskovich’s art has been 24 years in its development. Originally from Waitākere in Tāmaki Makaurau, she spent a lot of her youth at Piha. She is inspired by the natural environment around her and paints landscapes to capture the vibrancy and luminosity of reflections, combining abstract techniques with realism. Her work involves subtle mark making with palette knives to manipulate the paint into a coherent composition. She practises locally with the Platina Street Art Group in Auckland.
Shane Walker is a self-taught multi-disciplinary artist who has been freelancing full-time since 2016. He grew up in the small coastal town of Waihi Beach and now resides in Wānaka. He has a wide repertoire, from mural art and portraiture to realism and Kiwiana, strongly influenced by the idyllic scenery and world famous beaches around New Zealand. Shane also draws inspiration from classic New Zealand culture and often finds quirky ways to incorporate it into his works.
Curvy, interwoven, and sensuous, Claire Wallwork's style is powerfully organic and uniquely her own. Her bold reimaging of botanical forms provides an exciting metaphorical perspective and interweaves spiritual themes, inviting the observer to challenge the way they view themselves and their place in the world. Based in Auckland, Claire has been one of the invited artists at Eden Park’s 'Art in the Park' since the inaugural show. Her works have been featured in Art Magazine International and in the Feminist Art Museums Protest and Protect Exhibition.
Wellington-based printmaker Kirsty White grew up on a remote farm in the bush-clad hills of the Wairarapa which gave her a love for our landscape. Now living on the south coast, she enjoys translating her passion for landscape using texture and minimal tone through the printmaking process. Her current artwork focuses on our native bush, our treasures of the forest, nga taonga o te ngahere. The use of pattern work within her landscapes has been inspired by Pacific Island masi and tapa cloth as well as Māori whakairo. Pattern allows her to add narrative to her work, referencing our place here in the Pacific and layering details that reflect on past and present habitation.
Cara Wilde is an Auckland artist who works from her home studio. She focuses on painting contemporary and abstract artworks using acrylics as her medium of choice, inspired by the emotion that she is feeling at that time in her life. Nature and flowers feature strongly in her works and she aims to brighten up spaces with her paintings using beauty and colour. Cara has exhibited her artworks at exhibitions and art shows for the last 10 years and they are in homes across New Zealand and Australia.
Heather Wilson draws inspiration from her memories of a happy, carefree Kiwi childhood. Her contemporary artworks also explore aspects of iconic New Zealand scenery and symbolism, connected with cherished geometric patterns from the 1970s. Heather describes her work as an explosion of bold, strong colour and texture, which is her distinctive trademark. She uses acrylic and mixed media on canvas and board with resin effects.
Evan Woodruffe is a Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland based artist who holds a Master of Fine Arts (1st Class) from Elam. Writer Lucinda Bennett has referred to his works as Wet Maps, “living, breathing ecosystems, and visualisations of a new kind of urbanism”. A respected educator and advocate for the visual arts, Evan is Global Brand Ambassador for Schmincke Artist Colours and da Vinci Artist Brushes, Germany, and product specialist for Gordon Harris art and graphic supplies stores. He exhibits throughout the Asia-Pacific region, with work in significant collections in Singapore, Australia, China, the USA, and Aotearoa New Zealand. Recent exhibitions include 'No Straight Lines' at Hastings City Art Gallery and the 2023 Chengdu Biennale in China.
Clare Woods is an intuitive abstract artist based in Matakana and Torbay. She has always painted and has vivid memories of painting bright colours and patterns over her walls and windows as a child. This creative freedom led to art studies and a successful design career. Having explored mediums such as clay, printing and fibre art, she now mostly paints in acrylics on canvas, often incorporating pencil, crayon or pastel in her mark making, and is exploring collage. Often inspired by nature, Clare creates hundreds of hand-painted and cut swatches filled with intense colour which connect and overlap. Each section is unique, while blending and relating to the others like a family, each telling its own story and intended to elicit a happy, uplifting response. An underlying narrative is formed with complex layering, mark making and thick, experimental tool paint application. Similar marks and shapes reappear in her work and comprise a unique signature style, a fingerprint of pools, lines, paths and pattern. Clare's work is joyful, colourful and vibrant.
Whangārei artist Judy Woods gained her Fine Arts degree from Otago Polytechnic in 1985. A secondary school art teacher for 16 years, she continues to teach art courses and workshops online. Judy creates abstract work combining paint, ink, and dry media with collage. Her work is a playful expression of contrasts and juxtapositions of shape, line and colour. Peppered with intriguing surprises, she builds the surface with edges and layers created through her process of rotating the canvas and alternating between control and loose application of media. Judy has exhibited widely throughout New Zealand with additional shows in Santa Fe and London. The recipient of many national awards, Judy was a finalist in the 2020 Art2Life International Juried Art Exhibition and in 2021 was awarded first place.
Coral Noel Yang is an Auckland-based contemporary painter. She specializes in abstract and floral art using acrylic and oil, blending soak-stain techniques with Asian water-ink traditions. Her vibrant and layered works exude luminous hues and expressive marks, drawing inspiration from Aotearoa's landscapes and florals, her 15 years of global filmmaking experience, and her Chinese-Japanese heritage. Enthralled by the unpredictable beauty of fluidity, she navigates between intuitive material play and meticulous design, crafting layers adorned with water marks, organic shapes, and whimsical brushstrokes. Her paintings capture nature's essence intertwined with human emotions, evoking a profound sense of wonder and belonging. Her work is appreciated both locally and internationally.
Jamie Adamson’s strong interest in working with wood began during his early years, when he remembers joining his grandfather in his workshop and tinkering away with tools to fix and create things. After leaving school, Jamie completed his apprenticeship in the boat building trade which gave him experience working with timber, steel and fibreglass materials. Through boat building Jamie learned patience and the ability to craft a concept into a product that looks aesthetically pleasing. Having recently sold his business, Jamie is now embracing his long-harboured interest in sculpting with wood. Using boat building techniques, he is experimenting and developing his own style of sculpture. For Jamie, wood is a natural pleasure to work with and the process comes from an instinctual space. He enjoys the physicality of the forms he creates, emulating natural shapes, flowing lines, and working with the organic nature of the material.