Various Artists with Sofia & Maya

Alex Laurie is a Tāmaki Makaurau based artist, working amongst sculpture and installation in response to site specific and architectural contexts.

The title of his current show on at Grace, Nit, is a three letter homonym referring to:

1. The egg or young form of a louse or other parasitic insect

2. A foolish person

3. A unit of luminance used to measure brightness.

Within Nit laurie resumes  his long standing fascination with vessels. A magical sculptural water vessel awaits viewers as they enter the gallery. Luring them in closer through its hypnotic circular movements of 5 wooden goblets amongst a bath of milky water.

Venturing further into the gallery,  a scullery of translucent spoons and ladles quickly shift into these illusionary ciphers that nod to the form of an egg. Sinking in and out of their surroundings, refracting the light as they fall between.

Maya had a kōrero with Alex Laurie about the show, and overall practice

Murmuration is a solo exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Li Si Rong. 

Within Murmuration Li Si Rong presents a body of work that hovers between the everyday and an imagined dream-like space, navigating humanity's relationship with the home, and the things inside them.

Her paintings Sing with sweeping colours and dance amongst familiar forms while pulling the viewer into a world of the paintings themselves; that of a feeling of home and into a space of community. 

Mobile like structures hang alongside the paintings, playing a careful balancing act like that of the movements of starlings, Murmuration.  Li Si Rong uses Murmuration as a metaphor for community, shifting the gallery space into a place of murmuration itself, bringing us together into a space of warmth when we need it most.

Maya had a chat with Li Si Rong about Murmuration, as well as her overall practice .

Ma 間 is a new exhibition curated by Yuka O’Shannessy on at the Arts House Trust at Pah Homestead. 

With a background rooted in her upbringing in Japan and exploration of artistic mediums and making, including her pursuit of fashion studies, Yuka has a refined, distinct, and thoughtful aesthetic as the Director of Public Record. 

Ma is often translated to mean ‘gap’, ‘space’, or ‘interval’, referring to a space that creates harmony between elements. Exploring space, connection, and transformation, Ma 間 traverses the Japanese concept with a ‘series of intentional pauses, moments of tension, openness, and calm, that invite reflection and connection within an environment.’ Showcasing the works of 28 artists as sourced from the Arts House Trust’s collection, as well as Public Record’s and other selected artists, this exhibition presents a considered curation, presentation, and appreciation of craftsmanship and refined and unique visual expression. 

Sofia had a kōrero with Yuka O’Shannessy, as well as Director of the Arts House Trust at Pah Homestead, Anita Tote-ah, about the show.

Unerased: Made in Palestine is an exhibition by Pōneke-based artist Emily Hartley-Skudder, illustrator, maker, and activist Pinky Fang, and multi-disciplinary artist Nathan Taare, opening tonight at 250 Ponsonby Road. 

The exhibition began with Pinky’s mother discovering a collection of imported vintage cosmetics at an estate sale in the Hawkes Bay, of which a variety of beauty products - deodorant, hair oil, baby powder, toothpaste, and more - were labelled ‘Made in Palestine’. Notably, the products are all from pre-1948, and a number of the brands are most likely European Zionist manufacturers who had immigrated to Palestine before rebranding their labelling to “Made in Israel” in 1948.

All proceeds from the exhibition go towards Convoys of Good for families in Gaza.

Sofia had a kōrero with Emily Hartley-Skudder about the making of Unerased: Made in Palestine and the exhibition’s kaupapa.

All works are also available online, here.