The Good Oil

In this episode, I sit down with Lisa Reihana at her studio in Tāmaki Makaurau.This episode is part of a series I’m delivering this season for the McCahon House Parehuia Residency, celebrating their 20th Anniversary, where I’m volunteering the services of The Good Oil to highlight the wonderful and important work they do, and some of their very impressive alumni, which includes Lisa.Lisa holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts, and a Master of Design from School of Visual Art and Design, Unitec Institute of Technology. In the 2018 New Year Honours, Lisa was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to art.Her work is held in numerous public and private collections, including the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, The National Gallery of Australia, The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and the The Staatliche Museum in Berlin.She has also been the recipient of several art prizes and residencies, including of course being Alumni of the McCahon House Parehuia residency, and represented Aotearoa at the 2017 Venice BiennaleAll of those are just some of the proof points that Lisa is conducting one of Aotearoa’s most impressive and well recognised practices, often on an international stage.Lisa is represented by Page Galleries in Te Wanganui-a-Tara Wellington.There are images of the works that we talk about on The Good Oil Lisa Reihana Instagram Post for your reference. In the episode, you’ll hear about the role of costumes in her practice, how the street she grew up on created a kind of empathic privilege she has transferred into the practice, how important it is that she invites tamariki into the work as well as adults, and the generous approach she takes to collaboration.

In this episode, I visit Shane Cotton in his studio in Te Tai Tokerau. Shane is Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Rangi, Ngāti Hine and Te Uri Taniwha. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts fro the Ilam School of Fine Art at the University of Canterbury, and a Diploma in Teaching from the Christchurch Collage of Education.He has over 60 solo shows to his name, and a similar number of group shows, with several of those being public exhibitions. There is also a very long list of collection inclusions, including, but by no means limited to, The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, The National Gallery of Australia, The Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu, The National Gallery of Victoria, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, along with being awarded several art prizes and residencies. He was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the visual arts in 2012.Shane is represented by Gow Langsford Gallery in Tāmaki Makaurau. There are images of the works that we talk about on The Good Oil Shane Cotton Instagram Post for your reference. Although, a heads up, this doesn't include what were works in progress you’ll hear us talking about in the studio - more on when and where you can see those at the end of the episode.A quick correction - you’ll hear me refer to a painting of his as ‘Baseline’ - the correct title of that work is ‘Baseland’. In the episode, you’ll hear Shane talk about what he did and didn’t understand about painting when he arrived at art school, a moment that made him realise the diversity and monumental scope of Maori history and art history that set a path for him as a painter, his natural want to constantly be moving the practice stylistically, why there is a continued investigation of mokomokai as a subject, a sustained interest in painting tiki subjects as a way to explore carving outcomes with paint, and how those tiki paintings are a kind of ongoing way to complete the absence of a lot of art work in Nga Puhi marae.

In this episode, I sit down with Brendon Leung.Brendon has a Bachelor of Design and Visual Arts and a Master of Design, both from the Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland.Brendon has several solo and group exhibitions to his name, including most recently at the Aotearoa Art Fair with Trish Clark. He has been the recipient of the The Karekare House Residency and has won the The Siddell Memorial Award at the Eden Arts Young Artists Awards, and his work is held in, and exhibited at, the Arts House Trust at Pah Homestead, and, surprise surprise, I’m a huge fan of his work too.There are images of the works that we talk about on The Good Oil Brendon Leung Instagram Post for your reference. You’ll hear Brendon talk about how he wants the materials and often found supports to present their histories and have a direct presence in the paintings, that his mothers cooking advice has found its way into his painting practice, the Eastern and Buddhist philosophy that he wants to embody in the work and how, despite the practice being abstract, how he tries to make paintings like people by building a sense of character into them.

In this episode, I sit down with Cora-Allan Twiss at her studio in Tāmaki Makaurau.This episode is part of a series I’m delivering this season for the McCahon House Parehuia Residency, celebrating their 20th Anniversary, where I’m volunteering the services of The Good Oil to highlight the wonderful and important work they do, and some of their very impressive alumni, which includes Cora-Allan.Cora-Allan completed a Bachelor of Visual Art and Design (in photography) in 2007 and completed her master's degree in visual art and design (in performance) from Auckland University of Technology in 2013.Her work is held in numerous public and private collections, including Te Papa Tongarewa, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, Otago Museum, National Museum of Scotland, Auckland Museum, New Bedford Whaling Museum, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki in the Chartwell Collection and the Adam Art Gallery Collection.Cora-Allan is represented by The Central Gallery in Ōtotahi Christchurch.There are images of the works that we talk about on The Good Oil Cora-Allan Twiss Instagram Post for your reference.We spend a good chunk of this chat discussing hiapo. For the uninitiated, hiapo encompasses the Niuean tradition of tapa cloth making, including the creation of the cloth itself, the application of inks to add patterns, motifs and figurative elements that appear on the cloth. Not to be confused with Siapo, the Samoan tapa cloth tradition.In the episode, you’ll hear her talk about how important materials are in facilitating a connection to family and Niuean community, not least of all, tea towels, the nuances of sharing knowledge of the hiapo tradition, her very personal, but almost unintentional beginnings, of a hiapo practice that now defines who she is, and, I think one of the most unexpected, but fantastic and romantic answers I have ever got to that final question I always ask.

In this episode, I sit down with Emma Fitts at Melanie Roger Gallery in Tāmaki Makaurau.This episode is part of a series I’m delivering this season for the McCahon House Parehuia Residency, celebrating their 20th Anniversary, where I’m volunteering the services of The Good Oil to highlight the wonderful and important work they do, and some of their very impressive alumni, which includes Emma.Emma studied Fine Art at the University of Canterbury, before completing a Master of Fine Art at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland.Her work is held in numerous public and private collections, including the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, The Dowse Art Museum, the University of Canterbury Art Collection, and the Chartwell Collection at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. She has also been the recipient of several art prizes and residencies, including the Olivia Bower Residency, and of course is Alumni of the McCahon House Parehuia residency.Emma is represented by Melanie Roger Gallery in Auckland.There are images of the works that we talk about on The Good Oil Emma Fitts Instagram Post for your reference. In the episode, you’ll hear how she takes inspiration and direction from fashion and textiles, the potential of canvas beyond simply painting on it, the wealth of guidance she has taken from Anni Albers, how strong the research component of her practice is, and how that makes her in part an historian, and, I really liked this, she observes we’re living in a fluorescent time now with society not being so gentle, and how she plans to respond to that.

In this episode, I sit down with Richard Lewer at Suite Gallery in Tāmaki Makaurau.This episode is part of a series I’m delivering this season for the McCahon House Parehuia Residency, celebrating their 20th Anniversary, where I’m volunteering the services of The Good Oil to highlight the wonderful and important work they do, and some of their very impressive alumni, which includes Richard.Richard has a BFA from the Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland and and Master of Visual Arts from Victoria College of the Arts at the University of Melbourne. His work is held in numerous public and private collections, including Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongawera, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. He is also the recipient of several art prizes and residencies, including the 2026 Archibald Portrait Prize, and of course is Alumni of the McCahon House Parehuia residency.Richard is represented in Suite Gallery in Tāmaki Makaurau, Jan Murphy Gallery in Brisbane and Hugo Michell in Sydney.There are images of the works that we talk about on The Good Oil Richard Lewer Instagram Post for your reference. In the episode, you’ll hear Richard talk about how Colin McCahon text paintings spoke to him as a teenager, that he views his job as a painter is to document raw but beautiful, personal tender moments of human experience, how he’d love to be a funeral painter, the various substrates that he works with and how they excite him because of the different narrative they add to works, and why he describes painting as a bit like digging a hole.

In this episode, I visit Martin Basher at his studio in Te Whanganui-a-Tara.This episode is part of a series I’m delivering this season for the McCahon House Parehuia Residency, celebrating their 20th Anniversary, where I’m volunteering the services of The Good Oil to highlight the wonderful and important work they do, and some of their very impressive alumni, which includes Martin.Martin has a BFA and MFA, both from Columbia University in New York.His work is held in numerous public and private collections, including Chartwell Collection at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki , The Agnes Gund Collection New York, the Majuda Collection also in New York, at the Pah Homestead Collection in Auckland. He has also been the recipient of several art prizes and residencies including the La Brea Residency in Los Angeles, the Susan Goodman Residency in Berlin, and, of course, the McCahon House Parehuia Residency in Tāmaki Makaurau. Martin is represented by Starkwhite Gallery in Auckland.There are images of the works that we talk about on The Good Oil Martin Basher Instagram Post for your reference. You’ll hear Martin the unlikely role that itinerant agricultural work took in developing his practice, his relationship to the act of painting itself, which has seen him try to hide his hand in different ways, while also admitting he needs the very act of painting in his life, the two literary figures that have helped shape the subject matter, the multifaceted role that cardboard plays and represents in the work, his ongoing environmental concerns, which are still driving a driving force for him.

In this episode, I visit Ed Bats at his home and studio.Ed’s art qualifications are a little different from most artists that appear on the podcast, having been largely educated within the graffiti art community in Cape Town and New Zealand, a self confessed “confusing degree” and the world of furniture making and design.At this point in an introduction I usually reel off a list of public collections that an artist is in. The inclusion of Ed in an episode is instead a little different - and this requires more editoralising than usually happens here. In Ed’s case I believe the proof points of what a strong practice his is, are his high degree of technical skill in making, combined with a strong awareness, appreciation and application of art history into his works. In part this is taking the baton of sorts from Don Driver, a figure from Aotearoa Art History I’m really excited to see paid homage to. All of that comes together, with his own ideas of course, to produce really compelling contemporary art practice. Likely some of the reasons he has been added to so many private collections in the last few years. The opinion you didn’t ask for ends there, promise.Ed is represented by Peg Gallery in Te Whanganui-a-Tara There are images of the works that we talk about on The Good Oil Ed Bats Instagram Post for your reference. You’ll hear Ed talk about how his graffiti and joinery practices influence and presents itself in his studio practice, how important music is as a studio assistant, the motifs in his work that he can’t seem to escape from and his colour choices in painting, which are often secondary to the creation of substrate he builds.

In this episode, I visit Neke Moa at her home and studio in Ōtaki on the Kāpiti CoastBy the way, this episode is part of a series I’m delivering this season for the McCahon House Parehuia Residency, celebrating their 20th Anniversary, where I’m volunteering the services of The Good Oil to highlight the wonderful and important work they do, and some of their very impressive alumni, which includes Neke.Neke is Te Whare Papaīra, Ngāti Kahungunu, Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Tūwharetoa.She has several qualifications in arts and teaching, including Diploma of Design and Art, from Te Wānanga-ō-Rau-kawa.Her work is held in numerous public and private collections, including Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, the Dowse Art Museum, and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. She is also the recipient of several art prizes and residencies, including the McCahon House Parehuia residency.Neke is represented by Season Gallery in Tamaki Makaurau.There are images of the works that we talk about on The Good Oil Neke Moa Instagram Post for your reference. I’ve also included a list of some of the te reo Māori that is in the episode, just in case you’re not familiar with all those words.You’ll hear Neke explain that her practice is always a collaborative one, even when she is in the studio by herself, how and why her work is sometimes respected more overseas than it is in Aotearoa, the role of activism in the practice and works, how the historical pakeha definition of art and value systems devalued Maori practices and therefore excluded the preservation of some taonga, and how toi Māori is in a new evolutionary phase.

In this episode, I visit Graham Fletcher at his home and studio in Sawyers Bay, Otago.Graham has several qualifications to him name, including a Master of Fine Arts (with Hons) and a Doctor of Fine Arts, both from the Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland. He has shown in numerous solo and group shows for over 25 years, and his work is held in many private and public collections, including in the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, The Sarjeant Galley Te Whare o Rehua and the Dowse Art Museum, and has a long list of awards and residencies to his name.He is represented by Gow Langsford Gallery in Auckland and Milford Gallery in Ōtepote Dunedin.There are images of the paintings that we talk about on The Good Oil Graham Fletcher Instagram Post for your reference. You’ll hear Graham talk about how the combination of a visit to a home in Mt Eden and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and architecture magazines have had an unexpected and huge impact in the eventual direction of his practice, the relationship between tribal works and contemporary paintings that appear as subjects in his work, the role of the surreal, perfect world of advertisements of the 1960’s as rich reference material and the main lesson that he has taken from Matisse.