Deb Donnelly – 14th – 21st April
Deb comes to us to explore her creative dyeing practice in a fresh space, she is keen on interdisciplinary experimental uses of natural dyes applied to surface design on fibres.
Deb is well know for her involvement with Japanese Indigo and Shibori workshops. We have hosted her artwork in the past as part of ‘Time – The SDA Juried Exhibition’.
Beatrice Carlson – 28th April – 10th May 2026
Beatrice has approached the studio gallery for time in our Artist Residence so she can explore new phases of her artistic journey and revisit some of her earlier practice.
Learn more about Beatrice and how she plans to spend her time in Ōpunakē later this Autumn. It will be an exciting exploratory time for all of us and we will get to enjoy some of Beatrice’s works displayed in The Staircase Gallery.
Margaret Rogerson – 11th May – 19th May 2026.
This Residency will coincide with Margaret’s Solo exhibition ‘Time and Place’ which will run from 9th April until the 19th May. Margaret is going to spend a week fully immersed in exploring natural dyeing in the dye shed.
She will also have her Artist Talk and Gallery Gathering on Sunday the 18th May fro 2pm. Please join us to hear about this very talented artist and her sensitive, thoughtful creative practice.
Please check out Margaret’s Artist Page
Jane Théau 22nd May – 19th June
Dr Théau is coming to us from Melbourne, Australia to explore her horse hair weaving, her embroidery and her imagination for a month long residency at from out of the blue studio gallery.
Jane describes some of her journey through artistic explorations:
In the last few years I have been creating sculptures made of woven horsehair. I discovered this amazing fibre when one escaped from my cello bow. It is a unique fibre that is not floppy like thread or stiff like wire but somewhere in between, and it has an intriguing translucency. I took some to a residency at Textilsetur in Iceland, and in this beautiful old building was an attic full of looms. I had never woven before but of course I began weaving horsehair there! Some of these highly textured, animalistic textiles are paired with bronze elements. The lightness of the horsehair is a wonderful tactile contrast to the ponderous weightiness, coldness, and rigidity of bronze. I find that spending so much time working with textiles sometimes generates a tactile need to bash some metal around.
We hope to entice Jane to have an artist talk for us while she is here – more on that later.
Heidi Monks – 11th August -22nd September 2026.
Heidi is coming to us from her home in Thames, Coromandel. We are excited that she will be in residence, exploring how her practice unfolds for the duration of her solo exhibition ‘My Medicine’
Please check out Heidi’s Artist Page for more about her and her very special art practice
A Residency? Is it an Option for you?
A large part of the vision of our studio gallery is to provide a platform for the textile and fibre arts to become vibrant and enduring in the 2020’s and on into the future. As one pathway to achieving this vision we offer the opportunity for textile practitioners to experience a residency at our studio gallery. The residency can be of any duration up to 6 weeks long.