FHE Galleries

Artist in Profile • Renee Pearson “The use of greywacke stone, the most abundant stone in Aotearoa and the foundation of our land, brings the conversation back into a local arena.” Renée Pearson grew up in a small village in the southern alps of Aotearoa. These formative years, exploring the surrounding landscape, fostered a passion for the land that grew alongside her, and continues to be an important influence in her work. Pearson completed a Certificate in Design at Christchurch Polytechnic in 2012. Wishing to further develop her technical skills and explore new materials, the artist is currently working on a Bachelor of Applied Arts at Whitireia. At present Pearson works predominantly with greywacke, Aotearoa’s most abundant stone, allowing the artist to connect her creative work with her love for the natural landscape. Her first exhibited work ‘The Last Supper’ was selected for exhibition in Munich, Germany as part of 'Talente 2018', and was profiled in VIVA magazine’s 2017 profile of notable emerging artists. To enquire about available works please contact the gallery, or visit us at 221 Ponsonby Road, Auckland. @renee_pearson_art 📸: @samuel_hartnett

Artist in Profile • Nigel Swinn ‘‘I've returned to New Zealand now, with a desire to dust off my Kiwi identity by taking stock of New Zealand - and New Zealanders. A remarkable country and people, lost and found, at the earth's edge.’’ Nigel Swinn attended Wellington Polytechnic School of Design in the seventies and was a contemporary of the artist John Drawbridge. After completing his studies, Swinn voyaged abroad, selling cameras in a Dixons store in Bristol. On his return to Aotearoa, Swinn joined the National Publicity Studios – a division of the New Zealand Tourist and Publicity Department, and the ‘still image’ sister of the National Film Unit. Swinn has exhibited extensively, both nationally and internationally, including the 2013 and 2016 Aotearoa Art Fair, as well as the 2015 Los Angeles Photo Independent. His solo exhibition ‘No Free Man’ at the Gus Fisher Gallery marked the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta, with the seminal series later being acquired by the University of Auckland. To enquire about available works please contact the gallery, or visit us at 221 Ponsonby Road, Auckland. 📸: @samuel_hartnett

Artist in Profile • Chris Charteris "Everything is a living thing, even inanimate objects possess a life essence... their spirituality and energy are eternal." Originally trained in Māori design and carving, Chris Charteris draws on his diverse cultural inheritance in a way that explores the universality of form. Allowing the energy of the material to speak for itself, his sculptures act as signifiers of the marriage between man and nature. Extending beyond their physical form, Charteris' works are imbued with a deeply spiritual quality, referencing symbols and motifs found throughout Oceania. To enquire about available works please contact the gallery, or visit us at 221 Ponsonby Road, Auckland. @chrischarterisculptor 📸: @samuel_hartnett

Artist in Profile • Casey Moore "I'm always celebrating what's in front of the lens." Casey Moore is a Melbourne-based photographer with a focus on Aotearoa subjects. Born in Invercargill, but raised from the age of three in Switzerland and later London, Moore has kept a narrative of reconnection with his homeland running throughout his work. A deep connection to materials is woven through Moore's practice. He uses only analogue methods for capturing and printing his photographs, and massages the large-scale prints by hand through chemical baths. This physicality has become integral to his work, and is reflected in the bodily experience of viewing his photographs. To enquire about available works please contact the gallery, or visit us at 221 Ponsonby Road, Auckland. @caseymoore 📸: @samuel_hartnett

Artist in Profile • Alexis Neal "My works are an adaptation of traditional weaving patterns put into my own artistic format. Each possesses its own story.” Fostering a meeting of both tradition and modernity, Alexis Neal (Ngāti Awa/Te Ātiawa) explores traditional Māori weaving pattern within reimagined mediums to create contemporary Taonga. By incorporating a printed medium with traditional weaving techniques, Neal compiles multiple layers of colour and patterning, engaging with notions of cultural identity and material histories. Speaking on her work, Neal states ‘The exploration of culture, the value of history and the complexities of human connection are contemplated, to show how artefacts can be both personal adornment and remnants of material culture. Here, the Māori story is reinterpreted using European materials. It is social and personal, cultural and human. It includes you.” Neal earned her Bachelor and Graduate Diploma of Fine Arts in 1997, and went on to complete a Masters degree in Fine Art Media at the Slade School of Fine Art in London in 1998. Neal has exhibited extensively in Aotearoa, as well as in international exhibitions in London, Melbourne, Sydney, the United States and Norway. To enquire about available works please contact the gallery, or visit us at 221 Ponsonby Road, Auckland. @alexisneal_ 📸: @samuel_hartnett

Artist in Profile • Richard Naish "My main interest in furniture making is in taking a reductive approach to finding the boundary between reason and delight in the design of domestic objects.” There is no gigantic philosophical leap between considered architecture and art. They both explore a relationship with context and hold embedded meaning. But perhaps in Richard Naish’s case the link is more concrete: his journey to artist has involved the physical act of making 3D objects. “As a young graduate, I was interested in woodworking,” he explains. “Among other things, I made a bizarre coffee table as a wedding gift for my brother.” Five years ago, the urge to rekindle these skills saw him enrol in a community course. Then he cleaned out the garage, bought some serious kit, invested in the smaller, defter tools for fine woodworking and began to explore. His first show, entitled Almost, presented a series of experimental furniture (familiar but not quite functional). Parallels between his practices of architecture and art are not hard to find. Each feeds the other. “Art reminds me what pure architecture is about,” says Naish. “It should be a combination of the rational, appropriate and the poetic. The skill is in delivering the poetry.” 📸: @samuel_hartnett

Artist in Profile • Antonia Mrljak “As soon as I started making art, I never questioned it.” The daughter of Italian immigrants to Australia, Antonia Perricone-Mrljak's background has defined her sense of identity and underpins all aspects of her artistic process. For Mrljak, memory and mark-making have a symbiotic relationship. Discussing her practice, Mrljak states "The abstract marks build ideas and layers of meaning, blurring the boundaries between drawing and painting. I use the recall of memory to build and instil an emotional response.” These ‘marks’ are informed by the artist's physical movement across the surface. Her expansive paintings created through the considered layering of colour and form. To enquire about available works please contact the gallery, or visit us at 221 Ponsonby Road, Auckland. @antonia.perricone

Artist in Profile • Stephen Brookbanks “I really don’t have anything to say. It’s about the making... and that is more than I would like to have said. It’s a bundle of sticks.” An exhibition designer by day, Brookbanks can be found most evenings within his Tāmaki Makaurau studio, planing down pieces of rich cedar from dismantled villas to create these incredibly detailed architectural forms... An intriguing, meditative world of platforms and pathways. To enquire about available works please contact the gallery, or visit us at 221 Ponsonby Road, Auckland. 📸: @samuel_hartnett

Artist in Profile • Mark Mitchell ‘‘So much of clay making is process, rhythm and repetition.’’ Mark Mitchell’s interests lie in drawing out the relationships between the different features of the ceramic object - each piece is a carefully considered exploration of line, surface, and volume. Discussing his practice, Mitchell states, ‘‘My interest lies predominantly with the vessel as an archetypal form, combined with the rich and long history of decorative arts. I use pattern to create illusionary planes to explore the boundary between surface and form, and how the two relate.’’ In 2009 Mitchell was the recipient of a three month residency in Shigaraki Cultural Ceramic Park, Japan, awarded by The Japan Foundation, and in 2019 was the recipient of the esteemed Portage Ceramic Award. To enquire about available works please contact the gallery, or visit us at 221 Ponsonby Road, Auckland. @markmitchellceramics 📸: @samuel_hartnett

Artist in Profile • Te Ao Marama Ngarimu "Most works of art are labours of love or obsession, but sometimes they are an act of almost spiritual devotion. This is my love of working in Harakeke.” Master weaver Te Ao Marama Ngarimu (Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui) has worked with flax for over 40 years, fine-tuning the art form of weaving and falling in love with its diversity along the way. Ngarimu's weavings can take over two years to make, through a careful process of harvesting, sizing, boiling, drying, and then softening the flax. To enquire about available works please contact the gallery, or visit us at 221 Ponsonby Road, Auckland. 📸: @samuel_hartnett

Artist in Profile • Emily Siddell "I’ve always had a desire to collect and assemble similar objects, fascinated by the patterns and shapes these objects create in unity, the relationship of objects to each other and the stories they tell about our lives, the memento of a time or place or person." Working predominantly with ceramic, glass, and wire, Emily Siddell creates enchanting flora and fauna-inspired works of delicate beauty; melding together the artist’s love of the glass medium and her interest in domestic handicrafts. Describing Siddell’s practice, Sue Gardiner writes: “Emily draws together relationships between beauty, memory and humanity as quietly as a whisper.” Siddell has exhibited extensively throughout Aotearoa, with her work currently held in many public and private collections including Te Papa; the Dowse Art Museum, and the Auckland War Memorial Museum. To enquire about available works please contact the gallery, or visit us at 221 Ponsonby Road, Auckland. @emily.siddell.maker 📸: @samuel_hartnett

Artist in Profile • Oliver Roake "I am preoccupied with sound, time, memory, and exploring them through physical forms." Oliver Roake's sculptures illustrate a value on place, time, skill and consideration. For Roake, using traditional and modern woodworking techniques is a balance between the conscious and the unconscious, with memories of learning blending into instinct and intuition. The sculptures in his Re/cognition series physically depict sound waves of recordings taken at various locations throughout Aotearoa. The spiral patterns embodying a sense of time that is continuous and coiled around itself, overlapping in concentric waves. Sound and crafted object intertwined with memory and time. To enquire about available works please contact the gallery, or visit us at 221 Ponsonby Road, Auckland. @oliverroake 📸: @samuel_hartnett