The Talented New Zealand Artists To Have On Your Radar Now

From a modern hiapo-maker to a keen excavator of profundity and absurdity, Ginny Fisher spotlights some of the artists to watch at this year’s Aotearoa Art Fair.

Chris Heaphy

Tinkering with ideas of New Zealand identity with his bold, colourful and graphic paintings, Chris Heaphy, of Ngāi Tahu and Pākehā descent, has honed his technique after many decades behind the easel. Born in New Zealand in 1965, he attended Canterbury University’s School of Fine Arts, graduating with a BFA in painting and soon after an MFA in Australia. He explores notions of cultural identity in his layered paintings that are slathered with energetic groundstrokes and are often contrasted with graphic, silhouetted imagery symbolically linked to New Zealand identity — native birds, profiles of Māori chiefs, domesticated animals and colonial characters. Represented by Michael Lett.

Anoushka Akel

Anoushka Akel’s abstracted paintings and prints on paper consider psychology, pressure and plasticity. Her watery scapes of, perhaps, the mind, the sea or the sky rely on techniques such as layering, smudging, dry brushing and rubbing with cloth and sandpaper to reductive effect. The resulting subdued tonalities document the artist’s interactions with the canvas and leave the viewer diving in for a second look and to ponder the thought process of abstraction itself. Represented by Gow Langsford.

Glen Hayward

With a practice that spans carving, painting and conceptualism, Glen Hayward, 48, an Elam Fine Arts graduate, teases the viewer into questioning what is real and what is art in all its profundity and absurdity. Those with a sense of humour will appreciate his latest work based on his travels to some of the world’s major galleries. Glen walked away with snapshots of fixings such as a gold drinking fountain, gallery handrails, exit doors and used them as a reference point to remake these objects out of wood in his Whanganui studio. His sculptural practice revolves around such remodelling of everyday objects, raising questions about the status of art objects and the gallery environment itself. Represented by Paulnache.

Elizabeth Thomson

Elizabeth Thomson, 67, is one of New Zealand’s leading contemporary artists. Her practice spans painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture and installation. Her work draws on music, philosophy, mathematics and the natural world — think botanical, organic and molecular forms. The interaction between art and science has become a key focus in this age of globalisation and climate change. Her exquisitely crafted small sculptural works draw on pattern and abstraction, harmony and discord. Represented by Two Rooms.

Hannah Valentine

Sculptor Hannah Valentine’s practice is concerned with the physical experience of interacting with the world and one another. The artist, 35, has a wide-ranging practice — primarily in object and installation, but her preferred medium is hand-moulded bronze, which is often contrasted with sourced materials including climbing rope in bright hues, which add to the work’s composition and tension. Says the artist: “I really like the way bronze is able to pick up and hold imprints of the body… in a culture where so much is thrown away, there is something about its permanence I’m drawn to — bronze is solid and lasting. I love those areas on public sculptures where you can see thousands of hands have rubbed. I like that it responds to touch. It warms up, it likes to be held.” Represented by Page Galleries.

Cora-Allan Lafaiki Twiss (nee Wickliffe)

Auckland-based multi-disciplinary artist Cora-Allan Lafaiki Twiss took up hiapo-making (a form of barkcloth painting) over five years ago and was inspired by her Niuean grandparents (her grandfather wanted her to make one to be buried in according to Niuean tradition), and fellow Niuean artist John Pule, to revive the artform that had been sleeping for several generations. Cora-Allan has both Māori (Ngā Puhi, Tainui) and Niuean lineage and her revival of this Niuean tradition is distinguished from other barkcloth art by its use of white cloth as opposed to the tan ground prevalent across much of Polynesia. Her hiapo works take a more modern form, deconstructing decorative elements of traditional patterns and refining them into modern botanical drawings and abstract patterns. Cora-Allan finds “whenua” paints made from clays around Auckland and makes her own barkcloth from Ata bark. In 2021 she was awarded the prestigious McCahon House residency and was the recipient of an Arts Foundation Springboard Award, mentored by renowned artist Shane Cotton. Represented by Bartley & Company Art.