The Finalists Exhibition

The Finalists Exhibition showcases new works in the Main Gallery by our awarded finalists from last year's 6th Hibiscus and Bays Arts Awards: Tracey Coakley, Fiona Newton and Darlene Te Young.

Tracey Coakley tells a narrative with her paintings exploring the human emotions of anxiety, depression, growing up, understanding the transition from child to teenager and still retaining a distinct uniqueness. Using herself and her family as models, her realistic painting style shows as little brush work as possible, creating a softness to her contemporary figurative & portrait work.

Fiona Newton is a New Zealand born, multi medium artist of Ngati Porou, Scottish, Irish, English & Jewish descent. Her body of work is an environmental collection about the importance of recycling, reusing to enhance the environment and making functional art pieces using clay (uku) that she sources in her travels around New Zealand.

Darlene Te Young recent works explores her identity as an adoptee. This has manifested itself mainly as a series of portraits which are based on old family photographs, objects and places
that were of special significance to her family. Especially poignant for her is a piece she made about her adopted Father who passed away in January before completing it.

Four finalists from the 2019 Artrageous Secondary Schools exhibition were initially intended to exhibit new works within the Hewson Gallery however due to the complexities of the Covid-19 lockdown, only one finalist is able to participate. We are pleased to have Latamai Katoa able to display his new works for this exhibition.