2025 NZPPA

Dunedin artist Lynn Taylor (Dip Tch, BEd, BFA, MFA) is known for nautical and historically themed work focusing on mapping, memory, and the poetics of place which transcribe into creating layered artworks. Lynn approaches her art practice with a ‘printmaker’s sensibility’, utilising various research methodologies, focused on discovering links between ideas and materiality, integrating techniques between disciplines, and responding to graphic surprises. This also parallels her philosophy of seeking more sustainable practices through repairing, using safer materials, and reinterpreting prints. Teaching and arts facilitation form a dual career path, combining work in the Architectural Studies and School of Art departments at Otago Polytechnic with collaborative research in Sci-Art @ Otago University and facilitating workshops in the community. Contributions to the research environment include presentations, judging roles, and writing articles, the most recent being published in Scope 2024. Her work is exhibited nationally and internationally and is regularly commissioned and held in public and private collections. She has received several scholarships, awards, and residencies that have offered international experiences in Japan, South Korea, Newfoundland, and locally at the Caselberg House, Quarantine Island, and A Gallery in Whanganui (Summer 2024-25). She is an active participant in the Aotearoa NZ Print Council.   Matthew Browne – I see my paintings as a way to encourage and make visible those metaphorical images and sensations that normally reside deep in the unconscious. I like to believe that I am embracing Rudolf Arnheim’s statement that “Truly productive thinking takes place in the realms of imagery”. 1959, London Lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand Matthew Browne is an abstract painter based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. His striking geometric paintings feature sharp lines with bold, experimental colour palettes. His works could be read as overtly formalist, and connected to a long tradition of abstract painting, meshed in a discourse of surface, colour, form, and grids. But, in their subtleties, there is also something more open-ended and exploratory at play. Browne has described a process that starts in exploring formal relationships in colour and form but develops greater complexity as the work progresses. There is a subtle but palpable visual tension in his paintings. Areas of soft transparency appear in some of the hard-edged linear forms. Subtle differences in underlying surface treatment create areas of discrepancy in a seemingly uniform block of colour.  Sharp lines meet the textural weave of linen, and the heterogeneous nature of matter subtly undermines the precision of the calculated shape. Different grades of substrate bring faint differences to the resolve of the paint. Overlapping areas of colour feature distinctions in paint medium, creating contrasting finishes. Matte flashe meets glossy oil. Such material frictions are part of the essence of painting, they arise from the specific properties of the materials themselves. Browne is interested in the perception of the viewer and their relationship to the work. Too much precision, in his consideration, can make a work impenetrable. Whereas an element of material vulnerability can bring the work back to the relatable. This is a necessary aspect of the work – painting, after all, is a form of communication, though what it communicates is often outside of verbal language. He states, “I see my paintings as a way to encourage and make visible those metaphorical images and sensations that normally reside deep in the unconscious.” For Browne, a key aspect of what the paintings communicate is stillness, a respite from the cacophony of the world. Browne’s process of titling taps into many of the themes of language, along with larger discourses around abstract painting. These titles are somewhat mystifying and deliberately so. They invite the viewer to look at the painting with wonder, and they convey some of the complexity of communication. In addition to his own practice, Matthew Browne is also the director of Browne School of Art (founded in 2013) in Auckland,. Starting out as a relatively small enterprise, the school expanded in 2017 to encompass 3 large teaching studios, an AV room, library and BSA Gallery. The school sees over 1,000 students a year come through its doors, all attending courses at various levels, taught by a skilled and dedicated team of educators and practitioners. Browne holds a BA (Hons) in Painting from Camberwell College of Arts, London (1982) and an MFA  (Hons) from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland (1999). He has exhibited his work throughout New Zealand, Australia, and the UK. His works are held in private collections throughout these countries, along with Denmark, Singapore, Canada and the USA. Public collections include The Royal Overseas League, London, and the Parliamentary Collection, Wellington. Gow Langsford Gallery have represented Matthew Browne since 2022.