Title Artwork 1: Old Chimney, Tadmoor Valley Road
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas Board
Dimensions: 30 x 23cm
Price: $400
Auction
Title Artwork 2: Gas Mask 181
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas Board
Dimensions: 24 x 18cm
Price: RESERVED
BIOGRAPHY
My art practice explores the themes of urban spaces and places, and the impact of globalisation and gentrification on city inhabitants. In recent years there has been a fundamental shift in my work, towards a more critical attitude to urban space in relation to globalisation, gentrification and contemporary life. I am influenced by the environment around me, and this ‘shift’ is, without a doubt, due to recent artist residencies I have undertaken in major cities around the world.
I hold an MFA (Hons) from Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design, Auckland, New Zealand, and presented my thesis paper ‘Negotiating the Non-Place’ at the Affective Landscapes Conference at the University of Derby, England in 2012. Since 2012 I have held 10 solo exhibitions, and have been selected for numerous group shows including ‘Cruel City’ at The Suter Art Gallery, Nelson, New Zealand and the ‘International Art Survey’ Beijing, China. I have been a finalist in a number of major New Zealand art awards including the National Contemporary Art Award (2015), the New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Award (2018, 2015) and the Molly Morpeth Canaday Art Award (2015, 2014 and 2012). In 2007, I won the Landscape Award at the Nelson Regional Art Awards.
In 2013 I participated in an artist residency in Singapore supported by the Asia New Zealand Foundation, and the following year was invited back for an international collaboration project. I belong to the international artist collective ‘Instinctive’. My evocative 12-piece entry in the collective’s exhibition ‘in(visible) 1.0’ (2017) examined the plight of migrant workers in this global city.
I spent two months in Beijing on the Red Gate Residency in 2014. ‘China Dream’ (2016), a solo exhibition at the Millennium Public Art Gallery in Marlborough, critiqued the expansion of Beijing and offered sympathy for the aspiring individual and local culture.
In 2016, following a four-month residency at the Leipzig International Art Programme in Germany, I developed a body of work, titled ‘Between Yesterday & Tomorrow’ that explored issues of gentrification in Leipzig. Inspired by the strong painting scene and art community in Leipzig, I secured a permanent studio at the well known Spinnerei art hub (www.spinnerei.de), and over the last 4 years I have been dividing my time between the Tasman region and Leipzig, Germany.
I had my first solo exhibition in Leipzig at the Archiv Massiv gallery in the Spinnerei in 2018. Titled ‘The Dividing Line’ this body of work was inspired and influenced not only by the history of protesting in Leipzig, but by living in Europe, and by the bombardment of protest imagery online. ‘The Dividing Line’ opened in New Zealand in February 2019 at The Suter Art Gallery and is currently on show at the Aigantighe Art Gallery in Timaru until the 9 February 2020.