Marilyn Rea-Menzies

from out of the blue studio gallery is very honoured to host Marilyn Rea-Menzie’s solo exhibition Extinction is Forever April 27th – May 29th 2023.

Marilyn is a very unusual artist in the New Zealand Fibre Scene – she has chosen since the 1970’s to live solely by making her art which is traditional handwoven tapestry. The slowness of this process and the intensity of attention to detail this work requires is hard to realise if you have never tried to make this type of work yourself. As a practicing tapestry artist myself I stand in awe of her achievement. It is a testament to her commitment to this art form and her artistic brilliance that she has been able to achieve what she has.

Bio for Marilyn Rea-Menzies.

Marilyn has been drawing and painting since the age of 12.

Originally trained as a teacher, she discovered very young in life that her greatest passion lies in art.

Marilyn believes that drawing is the basis of all good work. There is a magical quality to Marilyn’s drawings and these often form the basis for her tapestries.

A devoted artist since the 1970’s Marilyn was at first in Tauranga, then shifted to Picton, and finally worked from her own studio in the Arts Centre of Christchurch before the earthquake. The earthquake necessitated a shift to Hamilton to live nearer to her children and the setting up of the Marilyn Rea-Menzies Arts Studio in Hamilton East.

Marilyn’s tapestries adorn many public spaces and private homes both in New Zealand and overseas. Her lively tapestry portraits have won the hearts, as well as tears of many. Her latest public tapestry commission was the double-sided Kowhai Screen at Government House in Wellington.

In October 2018 she held her first solo exhibition in the Waikato. This took place at the Wallace Gallery in Morrinsville and attracted a large number of visitors. The exhibition featured tapestries, drawings and paintings on the theme of the endangered flora and fauna of New Zealand, and in particular, our birds. This exhibition toured around New Zealand for two years. (This is the exhibition we will be re-hosting here at from out of the blue studio gallery)

One of her tapestries from this exhibition was shown in the Premier Tapestry Exhibition in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, Marilyn was invited to send a tapestry to the UK to participate in the touring exhibition ‘The Natural World’.

Marilyn is now working from her studio/Gallery which is situated in her hometown of Westport.