Jade Townsend (Ngāti Kahungunu, Te Ātihaunui-a-Pāpārangi) is a multi-disciplinary artist and curator working at the intersection of her Māori, Pākehā, and British heritage. Born and raised in Whanganui, she moved to Liverpool as a teenager. Exposure to a wide range of accents, dialects, regional slang, folktales, and pūrākau made her aware of the limitations of translation and cultural hybridity as a transparent process. Through a range of hand-made interventions, she interrogates materials to reveal their transformative qualities.
'The notion of being two very opposite things at once—'native' and 'foreign', a symbol of the 'authentic' and also an 'imitation'—is of ongoing fascination for me. I find myself attracted to the artificial or synthesised aspects of culture as a beginning point: the hyperreal, the exaggerated.'
Exhibition History : Solo
Matariki, Whānau Mārama, Commercial Bay, NZ, 2021
Te Moana-a-Kiwa, Objectspace, Tāmaki Makaurau, NZ, 2021
Panic Buy, RM Gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau, NZ, 2021
Ā muri atu : A colaborative show with Emiko Sheehan) RAMP, Hamilton, NZ, 2021
HOMESICK/SICKHOME, Page Galleries, Wellington, NZ, 2020
ALL THE RAGE, Millers O'Brien, Wellington, NZ, 2019
Designer Island, ENA, Wellington, NZ, 2018
R.I.P. Kirks, Precinct 35, Wellington, NZ, 2016
Shopping and Other Rituals, Pataka Musuem & Art, Porirua, NZ, 2016
Singles Day, 30Upstairs Gallery, Wellington, NZ, October 2015
Typical Relics, Enjoy Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand, 2015
Typical Relics, IT Beijing Market, Beijing, China, 2014/15
Group
Turning a page, starting a chapter, Gus Fisher Gallery, NZ, 2022
Hono, Season, NZ, 2022
Text Tile, Melbourne, Aus, 2022
When The Dust Settles, Artspace, NZ, 2021
Whānau Mārama, Commercial Bay, NZ, 2021
He Taura Here, Laree Payne, Kirikiriroa, NZ, 2021
Mood Machine, Current, NZ, 2018
London Intensive, Camden Arts Centre, London, UK, 2017
Dark Objects, The Dowse, NZ, 2017
Visiting Asia, Te Tuhi, Auckland, NZ 2015/6
Imagine Asia, Pataka Museum, Porirua, NZ, 2015
The Yellow Ones Are Mine, Intelligentsia Gallery, Beijing, China, 2015
Residencies
Va Moana, NZ, 2021
Artspace, Tāmaki Makaurau, NZ, 2021
Hauhake, Objectspace, Tāmaki Makaurau, NZ, 2020
London Summer Intensive, Slade School of Art with Camden Arts Centre, London, 2017
WARE Asia New Zealand Foundation Artist in Residence, Beijing, China, 2014
30 Upstairs Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand, 2012
Education
BA Hons: Fine Art-Painting: Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK, 2010
Diploma in Fine Art : Liverpool Community College, 2007