Follow the path of the Avondale to New Lynn shared pathway in a unique exploration of remapping the shared public environment through personal and social mark-making. These boards showcase the consistent art practice of the Māpura Studios Creative Living, West Auckland Art Group, bringing individual and usually unseen works into the shared space of the public pathway, reimagining it as a new and vibrant artistic landscape.
December 2023 – March 2024
For the past three years, the Māpura Studios Creative Living, West Auckland Art Group has gathered every Monday morning at ALL GOODS in Avondale. Group participants are encouraged to develop individual work and pursue their own visions in a social and supportive open studio environment. The exhibition features original works on plywood, created using a variety of media to bring the artworks to life.
Māpura Studios is a creative space dedicated to working with people who are disabled, marginalized, or disadvantaged. Stretching across the Auckland region, Māpura currently reaches over 400 people every week. The Māpura community is diverse, encompassing all ages and cultures, coming together to create art in various forms.
Māpura’s Kaupapa embraces inclusion and acceptance, providing a safe space to engage with creativity and fostering social and personal skills for greater health and well-being. Making art together is not only a process but also a lot of fun.
Featured Artists are:
Kayla Parlane: Explores connections between friends and social media apps/devices, highlighting shared experiences.
Dino Japa: Exclusively collages high-end art magazines, reimagining them into layered text landscapes.
Daniel Casbolt: Creates precise architectural reconstructions of important social meeting spaces in the local area.
Tiana Mataio: Writes and draws affirmative wishlists of future connections to public figures and the characters they have created.
Tairi Andrew: Quietly carves color and shape on the page, reflecting his tāngata whenua.
Priti Dinesh: Creates artworks as gifts for friends, carefully packaged for delivery as social connections.
Leah Hickey: Draws memorials to people who have passed, giving equal emotional weight to family members and public celebrities.
MinJi Baik: Writes intense emoji-like calligraphy, acting as mediations between personal memory and digital experiences.
Natasha Conolly: Uses stencils as the framework for highly colored iconographic diary entries from her weekly experiences.
Tina Malu: Creates immersive color fields representing her consistent pleasure in applying paint.
Tim Danko: Runs comic and printmaking workshops for all ages in Australia and New Zealand, working as an arts tutor with Māpura Studios.
