Visions of Zealandia 3: Nightlife

In her third solo exhibition at Zealandia, Wellington photo-artist Judi Lapsley Miller explores what happens from dusk to dawn, when we might go to sleep, but the natural world burst into life. She uses photo-artistic techniques to tell stories in a series of fanciful artworks from the real to the surreal. Most of the subjects in this exhibition were photographed at Zealandia - Judi’s home-away-from-home.

Judi has long advocated for birds through writing, photography, and conservation fieldwork as a volunteer at Zealandia. Her step into wildlife advocacy through creative interpretation was a natural progression. Free from the constraints of pure nature photography, Judi exposes her interpretation of the inner world of others – their thoughts and feelings, their hopes and desires – in a form tangible to the human viewer that she hopes engenders empathy with other living creatures.

In addition to Zealandia’s commission, Judi also makes a personal donation of 10% of her proceeds to conservation for each piece in the show, including Zealandia, Forest & Bird, Hihi Recovery Trust, and Capital Kiwi.

What is fine-art photo artistry? For photo-artists, the photograph is just the first step in the creative process. One digital photo-artistic image can consist of hundreds of layers of photos, graphics, scanned ephemera and textures, lighting and colour adjustments, and digital brushstrokes all blended and masked together to form an image that is more painting than photograph. Judi realizes the resulting digital artwork as limited-edition archival Giclee prints, full of life and colour.

Available in this exhibition are large framed prints, unframed prints in three sizes, and framed TinyArt gift pieces made from upcycled materials. Because it’s the holiday season, pieces are selling off-the-wall.

Due to COVID, there is no opening event, but Judi is available for personal viewing appointments. Please contact her at judi@artbyjlm.com or gallery@visitzealandia.com.