News of New Zealanders via Global Media

NYC-Based Designer Jenny Jiang on What Matters

NYC-Based Designer Jenny Jiang on What Matters

Jenny Jiang is a New Zealand-born CGI designer and motion artist based in New York. Her artwork involves crafting visual worlds that explores aspects of surrealism, joy and storytelling in the form of beautiful…

Anton Thomas Illustrates World Without Borders

Anton Thomas Illustrates World Without Borders

In July 2020, his universe shrunk to a two-bedroom apartment by a rattling train line, New Zealander Anton Thomas pulled out an H pencil and opened a portal to the world, Natasha Frost writes…

Photographer Hōne Naera-Scott on a Journey

Photographer Hōne Naera-Scott on a Journey

Dwelling in foreign territory is something fashion photographer Hōne Naera-Scott is used to, Ticia Almazan writes in a story for Vogue Philippines. “Up until my early 20s, I was always just trying to be…

Art Gave Brent Harris a Way Back from Pain

Art Gave Brent Harris a Way Back from Pain

In New Zealand-born Brent Harris’s surreal painting I Weep My Mother’s Breasts (1996) two identical young men shed pendulous tears that end in nipples. Magic realism comes to mind: a Diego Rivera painting or…

LA-Based Artist Emma McIntyre Paints Magic

LA-Based Artist Emma McIntyre Paints Magic

“With vivid hues and dynamic mark-making, conjures up pieces that might change before our very eyes,” Berlin-based writer Olivia Parkes reports for the Art Basel website. “ paintings are full…

Ron Te Kawa Embroiders and Connects

Ron Te Kawa Embroiders and Connects

Textile artist and former fashion designer Maungarongo Te Kawa (known to many as Ron) interprets his name as ‘one who brings peace and tranquillity to the land’. Te Kawa’s chosen artform is the quilt,…

Artist Angela Tiatia Keeps ACMI Visitors Guessing

Artist Angela Tiatia Keeps ACMI Visitors Guessing

The opening sequence of New Zealand-born artist Angela Tiatia’s The Dark Current, a 17-minute digital video now screening at the ACMI in Melbourne, is as mesmerising as it is suspenseful, Lenny Ann Low writes…

Sam Hamilton Exhibits at Portland’s Converge 45

Sam Hamilton Exhibits at Portland’s Converge 45

“The strongest curatorial statement of Converge 45 is at Oregon Contemporary, where a five-channel video by Portland-based, Aotearoa New Zealand-born Sam Hamilton (Sam Tam Ham) rejects the hegemonic world order in favour…

Art Lover Sigrid Kirk on Her Personal Collection

Art Lover Sigrid Kirk on Her Personal Collection

New Zealand-born, London-based collector Sigrid Kirk wears many hats: art advisor, cultural strategist, independent curator, patron and co-founder of the Association of Women in the Arts (AWITA). Art market website ArtNet speaks with Kirk…

Sculptor Dawn Conn Exhibits in Cork

Sculptor Dawn Conn Exhibits in Cork

New Zealand artist Dawn Conn, who recently made headlines winning a Gold 5* Award at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, is exhibiting her sculptures at The Kildare Gallery’s annual sculpture exhibition in Cork, the…

Rebecca Zephyr Thomas Looks Back at Underage

Rebecca Zephyr Thomas Looks Back at Underage

Rebecca Zephyr Thomas, a New Zealand-born photographer, had moved to Shoreditch in 2004, poised and ready to capture the heyday of indie sleaze. Sympathetic to teenagers and understanding of their angst, she attended Underage…

Artist Bella McGoldrick Inspired by Coffee

Artist Bella McGoldrick Inspired by Coffee

Working meticulously with coloured pencil, with each drawing taking up to 200 hours for an almost photo-like finish, New Zealand-born Bella McGoldrick’s travel paintings capture connection. Her new Black Water collection explores a global…

In the Studio with Painter Angela Heisch

In the Studio with Painter Angela Heisch

New Zealand-born, Brooklyn-based artist Angela Heisch takes inspiration from organic forms and patterns in nature for her luminous, abstract paintings. Her solo exhibition ‘Low Speed Highs’ at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery in London (through 29…

Max Gimblett Shows in San Francisco: The Beginning of Time

Max Gimblett Shows in San Francisco: The Beginning of Time

New Yorker and New Zealander Max Gimblett has opened his latest exhibition The Beginning of Time at leading contemporary gallery Hosfelt in San Francisco. In the spirit of impermanence –…

Gibbs Farm Alive with Gravity-Defying Sculptures

Gibbs Farm Alive with Gravity-Defying Sculptures

“The Gibbs Farm sculpture park collection brings together some staggering outdoor sculptures in North Auckland,” Ocula magazine reports. “The vast majority of sculptures commissioned for the park – works by Anish Kapoor, Andy Goldsworthy, and…

Lynley Crosswell Creates Experiences in Victoria

Lynley Crosswell Creates Experiences in Victoria

New Zealander Lynley Crosswell took over as chief executive of Museums Victoria which includes the Melbourne Museum, Scienceworks, Immigration Museum, IMAX and the Royal Exhibition Building, in 2017. She is the first woman chief…

Artist Francis Upritchard Shows in Switzerland

Artist Francis Upritchard Shows in Switzerland

New Zealand-born artist Francis Upritchard, 46, has had her first solo show in Switzerland at Biel’s Kunsthaus Pasquart, exhibiting over 100 works. “Upritchard’s sculptures represent a striking amalgamation of fantasy and reality. Incorporating a wide…

Kate Newby’s NY Art Rose Through Cracks

Kate Newby’s NY Art Rose Through Cracks

In New York, on the Lower East Side, Laurel Gitlen gallery features two tile works that Kate Newby, the sculptor and ceramist, calls “murals”. Hung like paintings, they incorporate found objects, specifically glass, gathered from…

Artist Hannah Jensen Reveals Magic in Carving Paint

Artist Hannah Jensen Reveals Magic in Carving Paint

Christchurch-based artist Hannah Jensen speaks to Forbes contributor Y-Jean Mun-Delsalle about painting in reverse, where all the layers of paint are applied first, then carved to reveal what’s in her heart. “After carving on wood,…

Sharing Taonga at The Pacific Virtual Museum

Sharing Taonga at The Pacific Virtual Museum

Tim Kong, director of The Pacific Virtual Museum, describes how the project is making the cultural heritage of the Pacific visible and accessible to all, in a perspective piece published on The Met’s website. “The Pacific…

Ruined Christchurch Houses Released with Light

Ruined Christchurch Houses Released with Light

“For centuries, crosses and circles have been used to mark houses either visited by disease or targeted for burglary. This act of externalising the interior life of a home is something that artist Ian…

Met’s Arts of Oceania Has Maia Nuku in Charge

Met’s Arts of Oceania Has Maia Nuku in Charge

New Zealander Dr Maia Nuku is showcasing Oceania to the world at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Thomas Bywater writes in a story for The New Zealand Herald. Curator of Arts of Oceania,…

Bottled Ocean 2122 by George Nuku Shows in Vienna

Bottled Ocean 2122 by George Nuku Shows in Vienna

New Zealand artist George Nuku (Ngāti Kahungunu and Tūwharetoa) has presented his latest work, dubbed Bottled Ocean 2122, as an installation that imagines the state of the world’s oceans 100 years in the future…

Susan Te Kahurangi King’s Reputation Rising

Susan Te Kahurangi King’s Reputation Rising

In an article on the Christie’s website, specialists Anna Touzin and Isabel Millar select five abstract artists whose reputations are on the rise, all with works coming to auction in the British auction house’s…

Taika Waititi Portrait Wins Packing Room Prize

Taika Waititi Portrait Wins Packing Room Prize

Sydney-based artist Claus Stangl has taken out one of Australia’s top art honours with his portrait of Academy Award-winning director Taika Waititi, The Guardian reports. Stangl won the packing room prize, a sub-category of the…

Yuki Kihara Celebrates Samoa’s Third Gender

Yuki Kihara Celebrates Samoa’s Third Gender

Representing New Zealand at the Venice Biennale, the Samoan-New Zealand artist is foregrounding Samoa’s fa’afafine and transgender communities, and the climate crisis hidden from tourists, Jinghua Qian writes for The Guardian. Curated by Natalie…

Yuki Kihara Launches Solidarity Network at Biennale

Yuki Kihara Launches Solidarity Network at Biennale

The New Zealand Pavilion has announced the launch of the ‘Firsts Solidarity Network’, which seeks to support artists and pavilions making historic breakthroughs at the 59th Venice Biennale. The idea was conceived by Yuki…

Photographer Cody Ellingham Wanders Japan at Night

Photographer Cody Ellingham Wanders Japan at Night

The latest project by New Zealand photographer Cody Ellingham and British composer and sound artist Simon James French is Wander the Night Japan which will be launched as a limited-edition 12″ vinyl record featuring…

Photographers Chase New Zealand’s Glowing Waves

Photographers Chase New Zealand’s Glowing Waves

Capturing bioluminescence, a phenomenon in which glowing algae give crashing waves an electric blue glow, requires technical skill and a bit of luck, Mike Ives reports in an article for The New York Times….

Artist Kate Newby Exhibits for Earth in Paris

Artist Kate Newby Exhibits for Earth in Paris

In celebration of Earth Day 2022, Wallpaper discovers the group exhibition ‘Reclaim the Earth’, a wake-up call for humans to reconsider our relationship with the planet. Exhibiting two pieces in the show, held at…

Francis Upritchard Casts in Bronze for Huge Commission

Francis Upritchard Casts in Bronze for Huge Commission

New Zealand-born London-based Francis Upritchard, and Aucklander Lisa Reihana, are two of nine artists commissioned by the Art Gallery of NSW to create works that will go on display inside and outside Sydney Modern…

Tate Modern Surrealism Show Features Len Lye

Tate Modern Surrealism Show Features Len Lye

An exhibition on Surrealism, co-curated by Tate Modern and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, explores the movement’s previously unacknowledged multi-culturalism. Artworks from six continents, including Oceania, explain how, says the BBC’s Matt Wilson. Surrealism…

Inside Musical Instruments with Charles Brooks

Inside Musical Instruments with Charles Brooks

The New Zealand photographer Charles Brooks’ project “Architecture in Music” takes the viewer inside instruments, where music is created. A result achieved through a very specific technique. He explains his series to Enrico Ratto…

Getty Research Institute Acquires Max Gimblett Artist’s Book Collection

Getty Research Institute Acquires Max Gimblett Artist’s Book Collection

New Zealand American artist Max Gimblett ONZM has celebrated six decades of creativity with the Getty Center’s acquisition of an archive of 275 of his artist’s books. The Getty of Los Angeles is a leading…

Meet Todd Antony’s Subjects from Sierra Leone

Meet Todd Antony’s Subjects from Sierra Leone

In Sierra Leone, the beautiful game is proving to be a source of joy and empowerment for amputee footballers, writes Deborah Nicholls-Lee for UK journalism magazine, Positive News. “They’re just phenomenal athletes,” said New…

Photographer Rebecca Zephyr Thomas Lights Up

Photographer Rebecca Zephyr Thomas Lights Up

As the chaotic fashions of the early 2000s are poised for revival, according to Dazed’s Emily Dinsdale, New Zealand-born photographer Rebecca Zephyr Thomas shares her images from the first time around for an art…

Pop Artist Billy Apple Defied Parochialism

Pop Artist Billy Apple Defied Parochialism

In an article for New York-based magazine Artforum, contributing editor Thomas Crow looks back on the life of New Zealand artist Billy Apple, who died aged 85 in 2021. “Though he was much else besides,…

Riyadh Sculpture Prize for Artist Anna Korver

Riyadh Sculpture Prize for Artist Anna Korver

Taranaki sculptor Anna Korver has been awarded first place at the 2021 edition of Tuwaiq Sculpture for her work entitled, ‘The Lighthouses triptych’. “Her masterful work fuses abstract geometrical forms with multiple cultural associations, suggesting…

Angela Tiatia Shows at Massive Matisse Exhibition

Angela Tiatia Shows at Massive Matisse Exhibition

In the accompanying exhibition to the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ new blockbuster exhibition Matisse: Life & Spirit, contemporary artists, including New Zealander Angela Tiatia, re-contextualise, challenge and complicate the modern master’s art…

Marie Mansfield Wins Australian Portrait Award

Marie Mansfield Wins Australian Portrait Award

Ten-time finalist New Zealand-born artist Marie Mansfield has won Australia’s premier prize for female portraitists, the $30,000 Portia Geach Memorial Award, Helen Pitt reports for The Sydney Morning Herald. Mansfield won for Tilly, a painting…

Photographer Nicola Dove Shoots Iconic Bond Pic

Photographer Nicola Dove Shoots Iconic Bond Pic

Film stills photographer Nicola Dove, who hails from Nelson, has spent 20 years taking photos on sets. She’s photographed the likes of Dame Judi Dench, Liam Neeson, Dame Maggie Smith and Johnny Depp, Caroline…

Billy Apple an Artist Who Was His Own Life’s Work

Billy Apple an Artist Who Was His Own Life’s Work

“Over his long, provocative career, the artist Billy Apple changed his name, registered it as a trademark, branded products with it, had his genome sequenced and, finally, arranged to have his cells…

Rob Tennent’s Ode to Male Friendship and Summer

Rob Tennent’s Ode to Male Friendship and Summer

Summer in New Zealand can be a special kind of magic; the days of long ocean swims, covered in sand and sea salt and fingers dripping with fish and chip grease. It’s a feeling…

Webtoon Creator Rachel Smythe Busy and Paid

Webtoon Creator Rachel Smythe Busy and Paid

When graphic design graduate, Rachel Smythe, 35, tried to get a foot in the door of New Zealand’s creative industry in 2008, she was rejected at every turn. But in 2016, the BBC’s Mary-Ann…

HUM Ups Visibility of New Zealand Artists Abroad

HUM Ups Visibility of New Zealand Artists Abroad

New Zealand doesn’t have a dedicated cultural diplomacy wing like the British Council or the Goethe-Institut. To help amplify New Zealand visual art on the global stage, Pauline Autet established online platform Contemporary HUM….

NY Gallery Exhibits Susan Te Kahurangi King

NY Gallery Exhibits Susan Te Kahurangi King

“A small feast of King’s extraordinary drawings is currently part of an absorbing and knowledgeably assembled group show at the Andrew Edlin Gallery in New York,” Sanford Schwartz writes…

Māori-Influenced Umurangi Generation Compelling

Māori-Influenced Umurangi Generation Compelling

“Umurangi Generation is as much a game of hide-and-seek as of photography: just as much time is spent exploring the warren-like scenes in order to locate the next item in the brief,” The Observer’s…

Artist David Boyce Exhibits in Hong Kong

Artist David Boyce Exhibits in Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s Karin Weber Gallery has announced a joint exhibition by New Zealander David Boyce and China’s Hiu Tung Lau, two artists in dialogue who between them cover a multitude of artistic expressions and…

Photographer Robin Hammond Hands Camera to Refugees

Photographer Robin Hammond Hands Camera to Refugees

New Zealander Robin Hammond has spent two decades crisscrossing the developing world and telling other people’s stories, Guardian correspondent Lizzy Davies writes. For his latest project the award-winning photographer has embarked on a paradigm…

Artist Euan Macleod Scoops Huge Drawing Prize

Artist Euan Macleod Scoops Huge Drawing Prize

Multi award-winning artist Christchurch-born Euan Macleod has won the Australian $30,000 Dobell Drawing Prize with a pastel-on-paper work entitled Borderlands, Nick Galvin reports for The Sydney Morning Herald. Each of the 15 postcard-sized images in…

Designer Josh Nelson Inspired by People-Watching

Designer Josh Nelson Inspired by People-Watching

Josh Nelson doesn’t own a car. Because of this, he regularly takes public transport around his home of Auckland, watching locals interact on bus and rail, Giacomo Lee writes for a story published online…

Portland-Based Artist Vo Vo’s New Show Ignites

Portland-Based Artist Vo Vo’s New Show Ignites

After working four months with a tapestry company to create a textile for an upcoming show, New Zealand-born Portland-based artist Vo Vo ran into a problem: The company refused to print the design, Shannon…

LA Gallery Owner Blown Away by Emma McIntyre

LA Gallery Owner Blown Away by Emma McIntyre

Auckland-born artist Emma McIntyre’s first show out of New Zealand, ‘Pour plenty on the worlds’, is now on in Los Angeles at Chris Sharp Gallery, the new establishment’s debut show. Sharp, who co-curated the New…

Artist Simon Denny Reflects on Berlin Art Programme

Artist Simon Denny Reflects on Berlin Art Programme

Co-founder of the Berlin Program for Artists (BPA) New Zealand-born Simon Denny, 39, (pictured right) explains why artists are essential to the fabric of Germany’s capital city in an article for UK art magazine, Frieze. “When…

Rebecca Thomas’ Polish Portraits Stand Out

Rebecca Thomas’ Polish Portraits Stand Out

“More Radical Empathy, a project by New Zealand-born photographer Rebecca Thomas, is a poignant and inspiring series of portraits of activists from the global queer community in London, bearing heartfelt slogans of resistance against…

JK Rowling Picks Sophie Mills’ Ickabog Illustration

JK Rowling Picks Sophie Mills’ Ickabog Illustration

Southland Girls’ High School student Sophie Mills, 12, was one of four New Zealanders amongst 32 submissions worldwide to have an illustration included in JK Rowling’s latest book, The Ickabog. About 18,000 entries were…