Ōtaki-based artist Heidi Brickell (Te Hika o Pāpāuma, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Tāmaki-nui-ā-Rua, Rongomaiwahine, Rangitāne, Ngāi Tara, Ngāti Apakura, Airihi, Kōtimana, Ingarihi, Tiamana) is the first visiting artist at Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga Hastings Art Gallery as part of a new programme supported by Creative New Zealand.

Brickell will be based in Kahungunu ki Heretaunga until mid-November, where she will develop a new body of work, alongside a series of bi-lingual and rūmaki/immersion wānanga, drawing together local vitalisers of te reo Māori and Māori visual language. Both will inform a solo exhibition at Hastings Art Gallery in February 2025, reflecting living conversation and shared histories with communities in Heretaunga Hastings.

The Visiting Artist Programme is designed to foster connections within the Te Matau-a-Māui region, develop unique bodies of work that engage with local contexts and offer extended support for established Aotearoa artists to develop projects. The programme has recently secured funding to offer further visiting artist residencies in 2025 and 2026, to be selected by forthcoming open calls.

Heidi Brickell is an artist based in Ōtaki with a background in Kura Kaupapa Māori education and te reo Māori revitalisation. Her work has recently featured in major surveys of national contemporary art at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū. She recently co-curated the group exhibition Ara within the Āhuru at Laree Payne Gallery. Her solo exhibition PAKANGA FOR THE LOSTGIRL (2022-2023) was exhibited at Te Wai Ngutu Kākā Gallery (formerly ST PAUL St Gallery), Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland; The Physics Room, Ōtautahi; and The Engine Room, Massey University, Pōneke Wellington.

Brickell completed her MFA at Elam School of Fine Arts in 2011 and was the 2021 recipient of the Molly Morpeth Canaday Akel award. She completed the Enjoy Rita Angus Residency in March 2023 and a residency at Karekare House in 2021. Her work is held in public and private collections.

“Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga bringing me here before my exhibition is a strategy that values whakapapa,” Brickell says.

“It gives me the chance as an artist to begin this body of work while I’m making connections between the whakaaro and values that drive my work and kaupapa that have relevance in this takiwā.”

Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga Hastings Art Gallery is the public art gallery of Te Matau-a-Māui Hawke’s Bay, Aotearoa New Zealand. The Gallery works with artists and its community to explore the role of arts and culture in the world we live in. It is uniquely positioned as a regional, non-collecting gallery that presents a lively programme of local, national, and international contemporary art.

Image: Artist Heidi Brickell at work in her residency studio in Heretaunga, working with rākau and rimurapa. Credit: Mark Anderson/Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga

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