Sophia Jenny 'Phantasmagoria Chrysanthemum' Print Available

Artist: Sophia Jenny
Title: Phantasmagoria Chrysanthemum
Medium: Cyanotype Print
Size: (A3) 29.7 x 42 cm
Edition: 80
Price: NZ$100

 

Sophia Jenny is an emerging contemporary artist from New Zealand who has gained recognition for her evocative exploration of landscape and light. Her work often occupies the delicate intersection between realism and abstraction, capturing the ethereal qualities of the natural world through a lens of personal introspection. Based in Auckland, she draws significant inspiration from the rugged coastlines and shifting atmospheric conditions unique to the South Pacific. This geographic influence is evident in her choice of palette, which frequently features muted earth tones, deep teals, and soft, hazy greys that mimic the maritime climate.

Her technical approach involves layering oil paints and mixed media to create depth and texture, allowing her subjects to feel both grounded in reality and lost in memory. By blending sharp details with blurred edges, she invites viewers to experience a sense of nostalgia or quiet contemplation. Critics have noted her ability to convey silence and vastness, making her canvases feel like intimate windows into a larger, more mysterious universe. Beyond her technical skill, she is known for her thematic focus on the passage of time and the fragility of the environment. As she continues to exhibit her work in local galleries and international art fairs, she remains a significant voice in the modern New Zealand art scene, pushing the boundaries of traditional landscape painting while maintaining a profound connection to her roots. Her commitment to capturing the fleeting beauty of her surroundings ensures that her contributions to the visual arts remain both relevant and deeply moving. 

Lucy Davidson 'Breathe II' Print Available

Artist: Lucy Davidson
Title: Breathe II
Medium: Giclee Print
Size: (A3) 42 x 29.7 cm
Edition: UNSURE
Price: NZ$99

Lucy Davidson is a contemporary New Zealand painter whose work primarily explores the profound intersection of natural landscapes and human emotion. Raised on the Tutukaka coast in Northland, her upbringing among estuaries, bush, and farmland deeply informs her practice. She moved to Auckland to attend the Elam School of Fine Arts, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours in 2013. Her artistic style has evolved into a distinctive form of abstraction that balances spontaneous, organic marks with deliberate, intricate techniques.

Davidson works largely with acrylics and oils, often incorporating a natural color palette accented by metallic pigments. These materials help her capture what she describes as pockets of magic found by slowing down to notice small details in the environment. Her paintings frequently draw on the Shakespearean concept that nature mirrors human feelings, using scale and color to represent personal emotions and invite viewers to recall their own memories.

Beyond her studio practice, Davidson has worked on diverse projects including large scale murals, graphic design, and film internships. Her work is also recognized through commercial collaborations, such as her series for Pams facial tissues. Now a full time artist based in Auckland, she continues to produce original paintings and limited edition prints, some of which are hand embellished with 24K gold leaf. She remains active in the creative community, recently exhibiting her show Out/Lines in Ponsonby.

Beth Xia 'Sheep' Print Available

Artist: Beth Xia
Title: Sheep
Medium: Giclee Print
Size: (A2) 42 x 59.4 cm
Edition: OPEN
Price: $129

 

Beth Xia is a Chinese American artist who paints luminous dreamscapes where memory and myth dissolve into color. Born in Guangzhou in 1993, she grew up among incense filled temples and neon markets, absorbing the contrast of ancient ritual and restless commerce. At seventeen she moved to California, earning a BFA from ArtCenter College of Design and later an MFA at Columbia University. These crossings feed her work: ink traditions meet acrylic haze, eastern motifs float within western abstraction, creating atmospheres that feel both intimate and vast. Xia begins each canvas with automatic graphite marks, letting hand movement summon half remembered stories. She then layers transparent washes, gold leaf, and embroidered thread until figures emerge like spirits caught between worlds. Recurrent symbols include carp swimming through clouds, lotus lanterns adrift on midnight tides, and solitary girls whose eyes reflect entire cities. The palette shifts from jade and vermilion to electric violet, suggesting twilight moments when reality loosens.

Her 2022 solo show at Kasmin Gallery presented monumental scrolls where visitors could walk alongside continuous narratives of migration and return. Xia describes the process as breathing with the painting, allowing error and repair to remain visible, scars that honor impermanence. Recent murals in Shenzhen and Los Angeles transform public walls into shimmering portals, inviting commuters to pause within daydreams. Commercial collaborations with fashion houses translate her textures onto silk scarves worn by performers on world tours. Awards include the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant and Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia. Whether working on linen twenty feet wide or rice paper the size of a postcard, she seeks the fragile edge where personal history dissolves into collective myth, reminding viewers that identity is not a fixed shore but a tide forever arriving and departing.