TeTuhi

Abigail Aroha Jensen

Abigail Aroha Jensen (Ngāti Porou through Te Whānau-a-Tūwhakairiora and Te Whānau-a-Ruataupare; Ngāi Tāmanuhiri through Rangiwaho; Crow and Steele clan, County Antrim) is an artist who places herself within her whakapapa by responding to space with oro, painting and installation. Exhibitions include Occupied territories at RM gallery, a mural produced in collaboration with George Watson for Artspace Aotearoa; Pūtahitanga Kura, an artwork produced by Jensen and Watson for The Lightship, a digital light wall along Bledisloe Wharf; Te Pō at Papatūnga, Parnell Project Space; and Ata koia! at Te Tuhi.

Brendon Leung

Brendon Leung is a represented artist at the Trish Clark Gallery and is based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Leung is the recent recipient of the Karekare House Residency 2022 and is best known for exploring the correlations between materiality, process, and meaning inspired by a mixture of his cultural heritage being of South East Asian descent, as well as other influences. Leung’s work investigates the relationships between the qualities of found materials, interior spaces, and emotional spaces that come together in his painting practice.

Numangatini MacKenzie

Interdisciplinary artist Numangatini Mackenzie works in graf, tatau and mixed media installation. His practice centres on the exploration of urban space and the processes of building connections to his Pacific heritage and people. His research engages with literature on Oceanic art, museum collections as well as collaborations with living practitioners of art forms ranging from tatau, painting and spoken word to voyaging/navigation and street art.

Numa often responds to these experiences and sites of investigation through large public graf installations, performance and printmaking. He is actively involved in cultural heritage projects, performative acti.VA.tions, research and community development in New Zealand, where he is now based, and the Cook Islands.

Susu

Susu is currently completing their BFA (Honours) at the Elam School of Fine Arts in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Employing a wide range of media including digital form, painting and video, their practice centres around ideas related to journeying and the frontier of extra-terrestrial travel, drawn from their experience of migrating to Aotearoa from Taiwan at the age of 15. Recent exhibitions include A Mass of Pub-a-Pub-a-lee (2019) at ProjectSpace and promising.space (2021) at Window Gallery, both in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, and their work was included in two group shows at The Physics Room, Ōtautahi Christchurch and play_station, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington in 2022.

Tira Walsh

Tira Walsh (Ngāti Wairere) is a contemporary painter living in Tāmaki Makaurau. Her practice focuses on translating the complex and clashing physical sensations of the being in the world, drawing influence from cinema, popular music and everyday life. Walsh has begun to accrue a notable exhibition history since graduating with a Master of Creative Practice from Unitec in 2018. In 2019, Walsh was awarded the Kaipara Wallace Arts Trust Award, receiving a three-month residency at Altes Spital in Solothurn, Switzerland and was also selected for the Karekare Residency for 2021. In 2022, her work was featured in the group shows Te Pō at Parnell Project Space and Ata koia! at Te Tuhi. Walsh is represented by Two Rooms Gallery in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.

Sarah Holten-Warren

It is with much sadness that we note the death of Sarah Holten-Warren who occupied a studio at Te Tuhi studios up until October 2023. Having had no autonomous use of her hands, Sarah Holten-Warren employed a range of mark-making techniques and mixed media, using the movement of her body at times to create a variety of unique expressive marks. Holten-Warren has been featured in various Māpura exhibitions and was the subject of a solo show at Studio One Toi Tū in 2019, which presented work developed during her Creative Studio Residency at Studio One between 2018 and 2019. In November 2023 it was announced Sarah received the Te Tohu Iho Pūmanawa award from Creative New Zealand for her remarkable mixed-media artistry transcending physical limitations. This was part of the 2023 Ngā Taonga Toi a Te Waka Toi Awards honouring Māori artists and cultural contributors.