Our Art
Ever noticed the wonderful revolving art on the walls of Kiwiana?
Great! We’re glad you like it.
Kate Spencer, our amazing art curator, travels to and from New Zealand every quarter in search of up and coming artists. We offer them the opportunity to hang their pieces at Kiwiana and to sell the art on their behalf.
A lot of the art selected is based on the natural beauty of Aotearoa (New Zealand) and we hope it evokes nostalgia to those expats or to anyone who has had the opportunity to travel there.
Kate Spencer, Kiwiana’s art curator.
“I became a full-time oil painter one year out of college with a Kickstarter-style campaign to paint for a year. Checks came in the mail to buy paintings in advance, and I never looked back. In 1982 I traveled to Israel, living and painting there for 6 months in 1983-4. I met my Kiwi husband to be, and after a two year long-distance courtship, we meet in Christchurch and married. For eight years I was painting in Christchurch, NZ and showing my work in Manhattan. The dealer galleries that showed my paintings were in East Village. When they were wiped out by AIDS, the Pleiades Gallery allowed me to show there. At that point I opened The Space Gallery on Manchester St in Christchurch. After two years, I was asked by New Zealand’s Work and Income governmental department to teach other artists how to make a living from their art. Many of the artists showing work at Kiwiana have done the FUSE Art Business initiative course that was created and refined into seminars in 2001”.