
- Gasworks
- gasworks.org.uk
- @gasworkslondon
- Office for Contemporary Art Aotearoa
- ocaa.nz
- @ocaa_nz
Gasworks, the Jan Warburton Charitable Trust and the Office for Contemporary Art Aotearoa are delighted to announce that the Director and Curator of Gasworks have selected Abigail Aroha Jensen, from more than 80 applicants, to be the ninth New Zealand artist to undertake a residency at Gasworks in London.
Abigail is interested in the repetition and stagnation of culture, images, language, motifs and sound, and how mauri (life force) may transfer between the object and the body. Her work is often site-specific and responds to desolate land sites, fantasy worlds, ‘the archive’, and local histories related to labour, colonial entanglements and online habitats. Abigail’s studio practice involves harvesting and weaving with harakeke (flax) and other found materials, rope making, drawing, painting, screen printing, sound, installation and improvisation. These ways of making demand a sustained repetition of specific gestures, which in turn influence visual and sonic artworks.
During her residency at Gasworks, she plans to spend time developing her research around mauri, collecting materials, foraging for new flora and fauna and sketching in the studio. She will also visit and document sites of interest to compose the score for her first film, NZ Forever.
Abigail lives in Ngāruawāhia, Waikato, Aotearoa New Zealand. Recent exhibitions include: RopePlay, (a series of acts), sites across Aotearoa including; Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Pōneke Wellington, Heretaunga Hastings, Ōtepōti Dunedin, Ōtautahi Christchurch, Kirikiriroa Hamilton, Köln, Germany and the Busan, South Korea (2022- present); Spring Time is Heart-break: Contemporary Art in Aotearoa, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū (2023); Glittering Images, Grace Aotearoa (2024); Inside my papahou: puoro tuatin i. H er site, Désirée –ā whakamātao owha co- commissioned by Te Tuhi and the Busan Biennale Organising Committee, South Korea; (2024) cab-sous vide, The Dowse ArtMuseum, (2024) What thrives on these soils, at Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga, Hastings Art Gallery, and Bootleg, The Physics Room, Ōtautahi Christchurch, (2025).

About the residency
The residency offers an early / mid-career artist opportunities for self-led professional development, artistic exchange and experimentation and development of new international networks, and as such can be significant for the advancement of their career. Alongside the time for extensive practice-based research and access to artists in London with similar interests, Gasworks provides opportunities for the artist to develop new work and showcase their practice, work ethic and conceptual focuses to an international audience, including curators and collectors, unavailable in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The residency provides return flights to London, 24/7-access to a private studio space in the Gasworks building, accommodation in a house shared with three or four other international artists in residence with Gasworks, plus living and materials allowance.
The critical nature at the heart of Gasworks encourages the fostering of active dialogues with local creative practitioners, including artists, curators and writers, as well as direct engagement with important London-based artist-run spaces, collectives, galleries, museums, patrons and collectors.
Previous residencies for artists from Aotearoa New Zealand at Gasworks The Gasworks residency for an artist from Aotearoa New Zealand was started by the Jan Warburton CharitableTrust in 2016, and has been an annual residency for the last eight years, missing only one year during covid. 2025 will be the ninth residency in the series.
Artists who have been awarded the residency include:
Sriwhana Spong - 2016
Katrina Beekhuis - 2017
Hikalu Clarke – 2018
Christina Pataialii – 2019
(No residency in 2020, due to Gasworks being closed during covid)
Sarah Rose– 2021
Campbell Patterson – 2022
Sorawit Songsataya – 2023
Shiraz Sadikeen - 2024
Partners
The residency is a partnership between Gasworks, the Jan Warburton Charitable Trust and the Office for Contemporary Art Aotearoa
About Gasworks
Established in 1994, Gasworks is a non-profit contemporary visual art organisation working between UK and international practices, offering a cohesive space of critical dialogue and studio-driven practices. Gasworks runs a critically engaged exhibition programme in their gallery space often offering artists their first major exhibition in London. Alongside this, Gasworks has eight studios that are made available to London-based for up to five years, and five studios that are dedicated to residencies for international artists. Gasworks’ highly respected international residency program offers twenty artists each year the opportunity to research new work in London. Events, workshops and open-studio events are organised to engage the wider community, as well to provide theresident artists an opportunity to develop and expand their professional networks. Through Gasworks, curator and patron visits ensure that the artistsare provided with an active landscape to ensure the exposure of their artistic practices.
About Jan Warburton Charitable Trust
The Jan Warburton Charitable Trust (JWCT) was established by Dunedin-based collector and philanthropist, Jan Warburton, to support the development of contemporary art in Aotearoa New Zealand, with a particular focus on late-emerging and mid-career artists.
The residency for a New Zealand artist at Gasworks was developed by the Trust in 2016.
Images:
1. Abigail Aroha Jensen, photo by Ardit Hoxha
2. Abigail Aroha Jensen, Rope Play(act VIII), instalation view at Brown Bay Community Hall, Otago Peninsula, Te Wai Pounamu, Aotearoa New Zealand.(2025)