Emerging Artists NZ
The following is a small selection of affordable original art by new and emerging artists NZ. Art by the Sea is proud to support Aotearoa New Zealand emerging artists, contributing to the growth, variety, and uniqueness of art in this country. The artists selected here are full or part-time artists who have completed some form of tertiary-level art education and are committed to and passionate about the work they produce and the creativity they find within themselves.
Gina O'Grady
New Zealand Landscape Paintings
Gina is an Auckland-based doctor and artist. She paints landscapes inspired by her love of hiking in New Zealand's incredible outdoor environment, including many of NZ's South Island. "Through painting, I can revisit and recreate landscapes that inspire me, transporting me to places I find meaningful and restorative. This helps me to balance the demands of a busy professional and family life." Gina exhibits regularly in the Aspiring Art Awards and Tasman Art Awards, contributes to NZ Academy of Fine Arts exhibitions and, in 2022, produced a series of small works as prints to fundraise for the Starship Foundation.
Sherie Kemp
Māori Stone Carver
Sherie Kemp is a Māori wood and stone carver from the Bay of Plenty. She is married to Joe Kemp, also an artist and sculptor, and they have three sons. Sherie's artistic practice is spiritual and intuitive. She is becoming known for her beautifully carved stone offering bowls mounted on wooden pillars wound with woven rope.
Kate Steiner
Linocut Printmaker
Kate Steiner is a printmaker and mixed media artist. She has a strong affinity with the flora and fauna of Aotearoa, the beauty of our land and the wildlife that it shares. A natural dreamer, her work is influenced by emotion and intuition, and she allows that to guide her hands and speak in her prints. Kate's linocut relief prints are made by pulling designs from her pencil sketches and cutting them into lino blocks with small chisels. The work is then hand-burnished on to quality acid-free paper using light-fast inks. Due to the hand-made nature of the linocut printing process the prints have very slight variations, making each piece one of a kind.
Teimah Kemp
Māori Wood Carver
Teimah Kemp is an emerging Māori wood carver from the Bay of Plenty. He is the son of wood and stone carvers Joe and Sherie Kemp. Trained by his father, Teimah is finding his voice as a Māori artist carving in wood and Oamaru stone. His work is inspired by Māori myths and legends.
Paul Olson
Ngāti Kurī, Ngāti Hine, Te Aupōuri
Māori Wood Carving
Paul Olson is a Māori wood carver and sculptor from the far north of Aotearoa New Zealand. His work recalls stories, memories, and histories of whānau (family) and whenua (land) in Aotearoa New Zealand, while also presenting questions or affirmations to do with self, life, balance, and our impact on the natural world.
Sean McDonnell
Expressive Landscape Paintings
Sean McDonell is a landscape and nature artist based in Auckland. Often working en plein air, Sean paints intuitively: "I use my artwork to express the feelings I have about the amazing beauty and brevity of life."
Natanahira Pona
Contemporary Māori Art
Natanahira is a Māori master carver and sculptor based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Natanahira has attended many sculpture symposiums, created work for local councils and iwi, and has worked as an art tutor for many years. He is committed to guiding whānau (family) from different cultures to learn about te ao Māori (the Māori world).
Lana Berzina
Renaissance Oil Reproductions
Lana Berzina is a New Zealand artist originally from Latvia and now based in Auckland. Lana is a skilled art restorer of 30 years and, along with her husband, handles much of the art cleaning and restoration services offered through Art by the Sea. She is a talented artist in her own right, producing exacting reproductions of famous Renaissance oil paintings featuring her own hand-gilded ornate frames.
Jo Harris
Mixed Media Artist
Jo Harris is an Auckland-based, multimedia artist who emphasises the use of found and recycled objects in her paintings and sculptural works. Jo pursues questions of self-authenticity, social masks, and public and private expressions of human experience as themes in her pieces.
Anna Salek
Contemporary Pottery
Anna Salek is a potter and ceramicist from the Tasman district of New Zealand. Her affordable ceramics include a range of vessels, jugs, and vases decorated with black and white "doodle" accents.
Brenda Nyhof
Fantasy Paintings
Brenda Nyhof is a Dunedin-based, multimedia artist who enjoys the processes of learning and artistic experimentation in her contemporary art. She is inspired by birds, animals, storytelling, imagination, and fantasy. "I was always drawn to fairy tales when I was young and loved imagining the pictures to go with them. I am still drawn to stories, and my paintings are stories of a kind, using the language of art, colour, line and form instead of words. I suppose they’re fairy tales for grown-ups..."
