Dr Elliot Collins

Ph.D. Visual Art

I am an artist and researcher who works across a range of media within the visual arts. I aspire to work with museums and art galleries, across Aotearoa, amongst people and objects who sit in the difficult places of history and memory that help us live better lives by revealing their stories and sharing their ‘knowledges’.

I gained a practice-led Ph.D. from AUT University in 2019, researching Memory Markers in the Landscape in Aotearoa New Zealand. I am interested in ideas of the present/absent texts within ‘memory markers’ in Aotearoa New Zealand as well as the motifs that represent a particular kind of meaning-making narrative. My practice references poetry and language, the naming of things, as well as memorials, memory, and time.

Memory markers is a phrase I conceived, to describe the range of memorials and holders of memory situated within the landscape that attempt to either personally or publicly hold, record, and impart memory to the future. These places, sites, or markers are always intentional and could be described as passive. For example, a school or a marae are ‘alive’ memory markers, while they too hold memory, they are in a state of constant flux and movement, making new memories or reviving old histories. Passive memory markers are meant to mark time for us and we move past them. Time is perhaps the most elusive or disquieting element in my work.

I continue to produce practice-led research with particular attention to history and presence as well as decolonial methods of a settler Pākehā practitioner, finding comfort or at least atonement by way of exile. Since graduating I have taken a greater interest in autoethnographic fieldwork and recorded intuition by way of the flâneur or wanderer. My practice aims to expand ways of recording and documenting silences in relationship to the environment and cultural narratives and expanded knowledges.

There is a large text-based presence in my work that is conceived slowly and involves ruthless editing, discarding, and rewriting; most, if not all is my own writing.

The poetry within these works does not serve to describe the visual elements but to illuminate a personal philosophy or considerations. The work can be sad, frustrating, joyful, and painful all at once.

Born in Tāmaki Makaurau in 1983, I currently live in Waitara in North Taranaki, with my wife and our dog, on the whenua of Te Ātiawa and continue to show nationally in public and private galleries. I presently work as a senior academic staff member at Te Kura Matatini o Taranaki - Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki as a tutor in the Creative Industries department.

Represented by Artfull - see artfull.co.nz for details and showing at Black Door Gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau



SOLO SHOWS

TRAVEL LIGHT Atelier Gallery | Studio, Whakatu Nelson, 2023

THE WEIGHT OF WORDS Keepers Cottage, Albert Park, Auckland City, 2022

A MONUMENT TO NOW                                                                               NorthArt, July 2020

I REMEMBER MOUNTAINS                                                                           Te Tuhi Billboards, 2019-20

SOLASTAGLIA                                                                                               Tim Melville Gallery, 2019

WE MAY NEVER MEET AGAIN                                                                    Bartley and Company Art, 2019

A MEMORY OF THE RIVER                                                                           Nathan Homestead, Manurewa, 2018 Post Varanasi, India residency show

MEMEMORY MARKERS                                                                                 Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland, 2018

SURVEYOR, PH. D GRADUATION SHOW                                                 St Paul Street Gallery, AUT, Auckland, 2017

THE RECKLESS PILGRIM                                                                               Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland, 2017

FROM TOURIST TO PILGRIM                                                                       Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland 2016

THE WEIGHT OF HISTORY                                                                           Tauranga Art Gallery, Tauranga 2016

WINDOWS                                                                                                      Bartley and Company Art, Wellington, 2015

IN RUINS                                                                                                            Y & R Gallery, Auckland, NZ 2014

THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU                                                                     Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland, NZ 2013

ODYSSEUS                                                                                                        Corban Estate Art Centre, Auckland, NZ 2013

FOLLOW ME                                                                                                     Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland, NZ 2013

SONDER                                                                                                             Bartley + Company Art, Wellington, NZ 2012

BY THE RIVER                                                                                                  Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland, NZ 2012

Post residency show from The Netherlands and France

VALDRADA                                                                                                       Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland, NZ 2011

WHAT I WANT AND WHAT I NEED                                                           Bartley + Company Art, Wellington, NZ 2010

THE FALL                                                                                                           Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland, NZ 2010

UNTITLED (GIVING THANKS)                                                                      Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland, NZ 2009

PINE                                                                                                              Ledge Gallery, Hamilton, NZ 2009

INSIDE PAINTING OUTSIDE WORLD                                                       Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland NZ 2008

ABSENCE                                                                                                     Physics Room Kiosk, Christchurch, NZ 2007 


GROUP SHOWS

ILT MURIKIHU ART AWARDS 2024 Finalist - He Waka Tuia, Invercargill, 2024

I AM NOT A ROBOT Alpharetta Arts Center, Georgia, USA, 2024

EIGHT Lysaght Watt Gallery, Te Hawera, 2024

MOLLY MORPETH CANADAY ART AWARDS 2024 Winner - Major Prize, Whakatane Library and Art Gallery 2024

YOUR’S TRULY X Percy Thomson Gallery, Stratford, 2023 - 24

3 HOD, Ōākura, Taranaki, 2023

ABROAD Percy Thomson Gallery, Stratford, 2023

LAND BODY TIME The Grey Place, Tāmaki Makaurau, 2022

TARANAKI REVIEW: IN MINIATURE 2022 Percy Thomson Gallery, Stratford, 2022

NATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ART AWARDS. Finalist, Waikato Art Museum, 2022

MARYANNE SHEARMAN & ELLIOT COLLINS HOD, Ōākura, Taranaki, 2022

BREAD AND BUTTER The Grey Place, Tamaki Makaurau, 2022

MOLLY MORPETH CANADAY AWARDS                                Finalist, Whakatane Library and Art Gallery, 2021

A VERY DIFFERENT WORLD                                                  Te Tuhi, Pakuranga, Tāmaki Makaurau, 2021

TE WHĀINGA – A CULTURE LAB ON CIVILITY                   Smithsonian APAC and Auckland Museum, https://tewhainga.com/

TE REO PĀKEHĀ                                                                     Toi Poneke, Te Aro, Wellington, with Martin Awa Clarke Langdon, 2018

FREE SPEECH                                                                          DEMO, Eden Terrace, Auckland, New Zealand, 2018

MOLLY MORPETH CANADAY AWARDS                                Finalist, Whakatane Library and Art Gallery 2017

THERE’S SOMETHING YOU’RE NOT TELLING ME              St Pauls Street, Gallery Three, AUT, 2016, with Emily O’Hara

NATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ART AWARDS                      Finalist, Waikato Art Museum, Hamilton, 2016

SHAPESHIFTER – NZ SCULPTURE                                       Lower Hutt, 2016

A CERTAIN KIND OF LIGHT                                                   Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland, 2015

NATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ART AWARDS                      Finalist, Waikato Art Museum, Hamilton, 2015

PARKIN DRAWING PRIZE                                                        Finalist, NZ Academy of Fine Art, Wellington, 2015

FIVE PAINTERS                                                                        Bartley and Company Art, Wellington 2014

NOW YOU SEE IT…                                                                   Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland 2014

THREE COLOURS WHITE                                                        Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland, NZ 2014

MAN MADE                                                                                The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, NZ 2013

GANG BANG                                                                              Method and Manners Gallery, Auckland, 2012

WALLACE ART AWARDS                                                           Finalist, Travelling Show, 2012

SEA OF FOG                                                                              The Nathan Club, Britomart Auckland, 2012

FIVE YEARS                                                                                    Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland, NZ, 2012

TOO LITTLE TOO LATE                                                              Snake Pit, Auckland, NZ, 2012

SOFT CUTS                                                                                      University of Waikato, NZ, 2012

PAPER JAMS                                                                                  Gus Fisher Gallery, University of Auckland, NZ, 2012

A LONE A LAST A LOVED A LONG THE                               Duende, Rotterdam, NL, 2011

POST POST                                                                                      CAMAC, Marnay Sur Seine, France, 2011

IDEAS SPINNING OUTWARDS FOREVER                             Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland, NZ 2011

GAME ON                                                                                        Hastings City Art Gallery, Hastings, NZ 2011

COLOUR AND LINE                                                                      Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland, NZ 2011

VAN DER VELDEN: OTIRA                                                         Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch, 2011

PAPER SCISSORS ROCK                                                             Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland, NZ 2010

TXT: THE WRITTEN WORD IN NZ ART                                  Te Manawa Gallery, Palmerston North, NZ, 2010

WALLACE ART AWARDS                                                           Finalist, Travelling Exhibition, NZ 2010                  

MELBOURNE ART FAIR                                                               Stand A52, Melbourne, AU 2010

READY TO ROLL                                                                           City Gallery, Wellington, NZ 2010

WORDS WALKING                                                                       Bartley + Company Art, Wellington, NZ 2010

SUNBLOCK                                                                                      Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland, NZ, 2012

PAINT ON PAPER                                                                          Rm Gallery, Auckland, 2009

CLOUD9                                                                                          Christchurch Art Gallery, NZ, 2009 

LIGHTEN UP                                                                                   Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland, NZ 2009

NATIONAL DRAWING AWARD                                             Artspace, Auckland NZ 2008

I DRAW SOLACE                                                                      Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland NZ 2008

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES                                                   Rm 103, Auckland NZ 2007

LANDSCAPE / INSCAPE                                                             St Paul St Gallery, Auckland NZ 2006