A commissioned work for Auckland ARTWEEK 2024 as part of the Changing Lanes projects. This work will be on display for 10 weeks in Durham Lane East.
Below is the poem that I wrote with the words overhead.
See some more details here: I am not a Robot
A group show, part two travelling from Percy Thomson to Pukeiti Garden
A group show featuring
Jodie Tipa
Te Rei Hanataua Wrathall
Mark Alister Raymer
Elliot Collins
A retrospective of sculptural work made for tables and surfaces.
This show will span two decades and highlight a practice that has never been flattened. It is nostalgic and domestic in scale and is concerned with the relationship memory has with form and the body.
July 2025
This show is based on a found pencil drawing of a water jug with a glass and lemon found in a second hand store in Taranaki in 2018. It is my hope that the show holds the original artists name to the light for a little longer.
A solo window show about the difficult choices we need to make. Both are good but choosing one means forfeiting the other, at least for a time. You’re either the wind or the grass, you can’t be both.
Group Show with
Manu Bennet (Te Atihaunui-a-Pāpārangi, Ngā Rauru) (Levin), John Burton (Whanganui), Mel Fleet (Whanganui), Roger Morris (Oeo), Marianne Muggeridge (Oeo), Jodi Naik (Ngati Maniopoto) (Ngāmotu), Riihari Warnock (Ngāti Manu me Ngapuhi), Wayne Wilson Wong (Opunake). Elliot Collins (Waitara), Mark Alister Raymer (Ōkato)
This is the last show we’ll have in the current space.
Presented by Arts Whakatāne and exhibition partner Te Kōputu a te whanga a Toi - Whakatāne Library and Exhibition Centre, this annual non-acquisitive award is dedicated to excellence across contemporary Painting and Drawing. The award has developed over 35 years and sits credibly within the New Zealand arts community.
A high standard of work is selected to form the exhibition from nationwide entries by three independent pre-selection judges, then a guest judge is charged with awarding the winning works, announced at the award ceremony held every February.
For participants, the MMCA offers professional development opportunities to artists by showcasing their practice to peers, collectors, critics, museum curators, the media and the community at large.
List of Finalists:
George Agius, Feilding - Pillow Talk
Megan Archer, Auckland - Fantasy Flesh
Simon Attwooll, Wellington - The things we choose to wear
Debbie Barber & Jules Turner, Auckland - Still Lives
Macarena Bernal, Auckland - Molotov Cocktail
Constanza Briceno, Papamoa - Artifacts: my dad's inventions
Elijah Broughton, Wellington - Seed
David Brown, Wellington - AR 2023-174/1xHen
Kara Burrowes, Christchurch - Peripheral Haze
Oliver Cain, Auckland - Fruit Bowl Noir
Elliot Collins, Taranaki - One Million, Two Hundred Forty-four Thousand and Three Hundred Acres
Elliot Collins, Taranaki - Did you get the watercress I left you?
Jimi Colzato, Tauranga - Untitled 001
Linda Cook, Dunedin - Bodements of Becoming
Marion Courtillé, Napier - I love your guts III
Bridgit Day, Whangarei - Green on Green
Jennie De Groot, Hamilton - OK, Boomer
Jennie De Groot, Hamilton - Cold Comfort
Akiko Diegel, Auckland - The victory of little broken wings
Donna Dinsdale, Te Puke - 1838
Leslie Falls, Havelock North - "For what it's worth" Postcard advice
James R Ford, Wellington - Finitude (BSCL2)
Wesley John Fourie, Port Chalmers - Ray of Light (Genesis)
Hemaima Gardner, Whakatāne - Whānau of Light
Sandy Gaskell, Whitianga - Mō Te Aroha Ki Te Whenua
Wanda Gillespie, Auckland - Counting Frames for a Transient Era
Tony Guo, Auckland - Stale
Natalie Holland, Wellington - In the shadow of the maunga a kātene starts to bloom
Paige Jansen, Lyttelton - Lattice Breath
Madison Kelly, Dunedin - Tautiaki Splash
Claudia Kogachi, Auckland - Beluga whales swimming in the air
Skye Lu, Auckland - Stranded #1
Rose Meyer, Auckland - hone/space
Jane Molloy-Wolt, Kerikeri - It was a sad day when I left Loppersum.
Jane Molloy-Wolt, Kerikeri - My Father's Journey
Cam Munro, Ōtaki - Labyrinth
Lisa Passmore, Waihi - Cliabh
Ming Ranginui, Wellington - Till the clock strikes 5
Claudia Recorean, Westport - Canary Theory
Clark Roworth, Wellington - Skew
Moniek Schrijer, Wellington - Michelangelo
Taarn Scott, Auckland - At the Altar (shrine series), 2023
Karen Sewell, Auckland - Stardust (from my back yard), 2023
Liz Sharek, Auckland - Reef
Louann Siddon, Christchurch - Bibelot
Daphne Simons, Auckland - Meet Venus
Rowan Thomson & Peter Derksen, Auckland - Transmutation (drift)
Adele Tierney, Whakatāne - Te Waharoa - the narrow door
Debbie Tipuna, Tauranga - Adornment
Anna Turnbull, Christchurch - Make-up, Makeup
George Turner, Wellington - Gorse in my Shoe (2023)
Kate van der Drift, Raglan - Esk River I (after Gabrielle)
Charette van Eekelen, Christchurch - Breathing in Spring
Charette van Eekelen, Christchurch - Big Magic
Janna van Hasselt, Christchurch - Condition Report
Ruth Vickers, Tauranga - Dust
Sonja Walker, Nelson - Everything but...the bowl
Tim Wigmore, Ōmata - Tahi
Llyr Williams, Wellington - The Belisha Beacon
TM Wootten, Auckland - All For A Scrap Of Paper #1
Bonnie Wroe, Wellington - Lucy
Georgina Young, Dunedin - Pikipiki
Jonghyun Yun, Whakatāne - A Dollar Fifty
In this invite-only exhibition at Percy Thomson Gallery, Gallery Director Laura Campbell has challenged 30 artists from around Aotearoa to ‘show their true self’; to reveal their point of difference and do so in a safe space.
This exhibition is about identity. Artists decide whether to look inward and examine themselves in a self-portrait or look outward at the way they view the world through their lens. An exhibition sharing stories of youth, multi-culturalism, feminism, LGBTQI+ community, mental health journeys and environmental issues we face.
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Personal. Reflective. Healing.
Yours Truly x
.
Sierra Roberts
Gwyn Hughes
MB Stoneman
Hayley Elliot-Kernot
Jodi Naik
Milarky
Portia Roper
MiSun Kim
Rohan Wealleans
Rachael Davies
Morgan Paige
Jana Branca
Mark Raymer
Reyna Henderson
Isaac Petersen
Harry Moores
Elliot Collins
Fern Petrie
Shannon Novak
Dwayne Duthie
Darcy Nicholas
Maryanne Shearman
Tania Niwa
Mary MacGregor-Reid
Jennifer Halli
Mikaela Nyman
Chauncey Flay
Renate Verbrugge
Maria Brockhill
Kirsty McLean
Group show at Hall of Design
Jordan Barnes
Peter Lambert
Elliot Collins
Group Show
Waikato Arts Society - Small Sculpture Awards Finalist
Bringing together a diverse selection of artworks from The Arts House Trust New Zealand’s largest privately held art collection ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover; it may take you on another journey’ aims to lure the viewer beyond the cover of a book to reveal new pictorial narratives.
Drawing inspiration from the four book based works: Earth Book 2 by Len Castle, Models, Methods and Assumptions by Paul Cullen, In Search for an Invisible Rose by Peter Madden and Art book and sound by Leon Van Den Eijke.
Each of the selected artworks within this exhibition provides a new layer of interpretation and new spaces of discourse through the artistic realm of text, image and form.
Conceptual thought, possible decay of the written word and visual trickery may be at play here, but where will these new opportunities for interpretation and artistic engagement take you?
“We are proud to present an exhibition from this prestigious private collection at Percy Thomson Gallery, which will then tour to other locations on its way back to Pah Homestead in Auckland.”
Featuring artworks by the following artists:
Andrew BLYTHE
Mark BRAUNIAS
Matthew BROWNE
Len CASTLE
Elliot COLLINS
Paul CULLEN
Johl DWYER
James R FORD
Peter GIBSON SMITH
Roy GOOD
Bill HAMMOND
Will HANDLEY
Yolunda HICKMAN
Ralph HOTERE
Vanessa KONG
Peter MADDEN
Brendan MORAN
Milan MRKUSICH
Shannon NOVAK
Paul RAYNER
John REYNOLDS
Michael SMITHER
Bruce STEWART
Andre TJABERINGS
Philip TRUSTTUM
Leon VAN DEN EIJKEL
Virginia KING
Group show
a shared show by Hana Carpenter and Elliot Collins
This collection of work plays with the physicality of gestural mark making and with capturing and containing the body’s energy, which is an empowering creative act. The gesture moves from the body to the painted surface and lingers for a moment before shifting or being withdrawn.
The slow gestation of poetic moments start from somewhere deep and buried; down in the centre of one’s spine. The physical act of painting is a reminder that the artist will always be present.
Hana’s work references the real-time visualisation of sonography, which gives a glimpse into the body’s active subterrain. The paintings are biopsies, ambiguous organic structures, captured in a suspended state or moment. They hold themselves in a liminal borderland of knowing and unknowing.
Elliot’s work references deep time as well as the obvious yet sporadic way memory works. Flowing inwards or outwards, the river of memory continues. It can meander in the open for collective remembrance or sink into deep caverns of dark, cold, hidden journeys for only the rememberer to recall during those moments of silence.
Painting enables Hana to reclaim power and a sense of self. Fluid paint is employed in a physical and intuitive building and obliteration of form, the entropy, alchemy and agency of mark making. Her gesture is her voice.
Painting gives Elliot a chance to exhale. It stands in for him when he can’t be there to wave the flag of understanding or consideration. Words are employed just under the surface of the paint to recall things we’ve lost or act as reminder, a memorial about a far to specific memory for public good. His words are his voice.
A continuation of work from and on-going kaupapa about place, time, and the language we use to discuss the past in the present.
A Group show in 22 Acts
A group show with WITT Art and Design Department
Mark Raymer
Ged Guy
Philippa Berry-Smith
Elliot Collins
Feat. Virginia Woods Jack, John Pusateri, Elliot Collins, Mo Stewart and Deborah Crowe
A solo show at the Caretakers Cottage, Albert Park - Made in Partnership with Artfull for ArtWeek
I’m a Finalist!
Group show, Grey Place
Twelve artists who find commonality in the sustenance of making.
Art Cooperative ‘New Beginnings’ exhibition. Group Exhibition.
Group show featuring: Bonco, Chris Pole, Elliot Collins, Grant Whibley, Holly Schröder, James R Ford,
Jessica Winchcombe, Jonas Hansen, Marc Blake, Rhea Maheshwari, Sarah Bultitude
Finalist
A Very Different World brings to light the changed realities and unprecedented difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic. The artists share their experiences of the past year in works that focus on hope and wellbeing – reflecting the second chance this gruelling time offered to practise reverence for life and to connect as a human family. The newly commissioned works show that the artists are engaging in an altered world, working out new cultural and philosophical standpoints. This kaupapa is their occasion to express love, care and concern for mental and emotional conditions that appear dire yet can be instructive. A Very Different World also contributes to heart-led creativity that links to a whakapapa of continuous art practice in Aotearoa New Zealand, Tonga, Hawai‘i and Canada.
https://tetuhi.art/exhibition/a-very-different-world/
Monument to The Things that End, 2020, acrylic on found wood
On the Te Tuhi Billboards in Parnell, Elliot Collins presents an ongoing body of work that ruminates on landscape and memory.
Documenting maunga (mountains) across Aotearoa that the artist visited, following in his ancestors’ footsteps, I Remember Mountainscreates lateral connections to the landscape as experienced through our bodies and intergenerational memory. Calling into question the first-person ‘I’ in the work’s title by casting the viewer as a protagonist who constructs their own world through their perspective, the artist posits that places become heritable and moveable.
Collins acknowledges his Pākehā worldview by adopting an image of native mistletoe, pikirangi, a semi-parasitic vine that relies on a host tree for sustenance and birds to disperse its seeds, and whose flowers give the text in the work its colour. In doing so, the artist encourages Pākehā and tauiwi viewers to reflect on their own connections to the land and their responsibility as manuhiri (visitors).
I Remember Mountains, 2019 (install view)
commissioned by Te Tuhi, Auckland
photo by Andrew Kennedy
Solastalgia is a series of abstracted landscape paintings based on photographs of my travels around Aotearoa. They act as memory markers for places of national importance or sites of personal contemplation. Bearing witness to a world that is being so drastically changed around me the newly coined term solastalgia seems like a fitting tribute to our time here in the Holocene, a time of great change in human history.
Solastalgia is a new concept developed to give greater meaning and clarity to environmentally induced distress. As opposed to nostalgia, the melancholia or homesickness experienced by individuals when separated from a loved home, solastalgia is the distress that is produced by environmental change impacting on people while they are directly connected to their home environment. Elyne Mitchell, in her book Soil and Civilization (1946) writes,
no time or nation will produce genius if there is a steady decline away from the integral unity of man and the earth. The break in this unity is swiftly apparent in the lack of “wholeness” in the individual person. Divorced from his roots, man loses his psychic stability. (E. Mitchell (1946), Soil and Civilization, Halstead Press, Sydney, p.4.)
The paintings act as stand-ins for the memory of a place. The feeling of the colours and light in these places resonate with the "forever-ness" of the land and yet are abstracted from that land to draw on the way the change in landscape leaves one feeling dis-placed and longing for a time before. I want these works to call on the deep and intrinsic need for all of us to go into the landscape and breathe it and to inhabit it before we forget what it looked like and how it felt. In a attempt to move away from the singular authoritative voice, these works are examples of a landscape view not the landscape view. I am inviting you into my vision to try and help you see what I see.
Maybe you have visited these places and stood where I did to take the photograph. But maybe these landscapes escape you and they have changed and only this vague recording of shape and colour tells you of the sensation of these places. Maybe this is more accurate than the photographic source; these paintings show you how, and give permission to feel, in a world that would distract you from our connection to our changing environment.
