Elemental speaks to the raw, foundational forces - earth, water, fire, and air - that shape both the natural world and the creative process. It reminds us that making is, in itself, an act of alignment with these essential rhythms. Artists Rowan Giselle Holt, Niki Henipaiaro White, Ruby Wilkinson, Shannon Courtenay, Brigid Allan and Koko engage in a dialogue with nature, responding with reverence, intuition, and a deep sense of reciprocal connection.

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Image: Rowan Giselle Holt, Limpet (detail), 2025, cotton rag, charcoal powder and pigment powder, 700 x 600 x 25mm.

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‍Introducing the artists:

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Rowan Giselle Holt is a multimedia artist and educator based on Rakiura Stewart Island. Her practice is deeply rooted in the island’s natural environment, with native flora serving as a central source of inspiration. Working across mediums such as watercolour, textiles, sculpture,and fashion design, she often draws on traditional feminine crafts - handstitching, weaving, and tailoring - to explore the relationship between natureand contemporary life. 

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With over two decades of experience in both studio practice and arts education, Giselle holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Dunedin School of Art. She has exhibited her work internationally, including in Italy and Shanghai, as well as throughout Aotearoa in both major galleries and private collections. Recent recognition of her work includes being a finalist in the 2024 Aspiring Art Awards in Wānaka and receiving a merit award at the UXBRIDGE Ecology and Art exhibition in Auckland.

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Niki Henipaiaro White was raised in Taranaki, close to her marae and ancestral lands at Pukearuhe, and now lives under the korowai of the mountains of Lake Hāwea in Te Wai Pounamu. It is from the energetic power of nature and respect for the ancient traditions of making that her works are born. Her studio-based art and mahi wairua healing practice are grounded in te ao Māori philosophy and the natural world.

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White’s sculptural works explore the primal qualities of raw materials forged by the geological forces of heat, pressure, and time. Drawing upon ancient,industrial, and contemporary craft metalworking practices, she continues the process nature started. She received her Bachelor of Design and Visual Arts, majoring in Contemporary Craft, from the Unitec School of Art & Design and later pursued studies with master weaver Roka Hurihia Ngarimu-Cameron. 

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Brigid Allan has a background in geology, fine arts, and education and is based in Wānaka. Her practice is spontaneous and responsive, embracing chance as a guiding force. Working with immediacy and minimal deliberation, she seeks to preserve the essential quality of each mark, allowing intuitive gesture and elemental processes - particularly cyanotype - to shape the outcome.

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Allan collaborates closely with Koko, a lifelong friend and poet based in Tauranga. With a background in English literature, librarianship, and a pastlife as a contemporary dancer and choreographer, Koko brings a layered,embodied sensitivity to language. Their shared practice explores poetry and communication through the intersection of word, movement, and environment.

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Koko’s words are suspended in Allan’s sun-filtered abstractions, floating in a translucent, watery space - emerging through a process grounded in mutual trust and a deep understanding formed over decades.

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Shannon Courtenay is a ceramic artist based in the Cardrona Valley. Working primarily with hand-built and slip-cast forms, her practice explores the quiet dialogue between natural landscapes and the act of making. Drawing inspiration from the textures, tones, and stillness of theland, and movement of the Ōrau (Cardrona River) she creates sculptural and functional pieces that invite pause and reflection.

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Shannon holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts and has spent the past eight years developing a practice grounded in slowness, intention, and an instinctive approach to clay. Whether making a series of vessels or large-scale sculptural works, her process is intuitive and physical, focused on balance, form, and a respectful response to her environment.

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Recent exhibitions include ‘States of Carbon’ at Ponsonby Central (2024), ‘Summer ofthe South’ at Te Atamira (2023), ‘Stoned’ at Broker Galleries (2022) and ‘Landscape’ at Broker Galleries (2021).

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Ruby Wilkinson is a painter based in Pōneke, whose work explores emotional and sensory experience through abstraction. Inspired by the landscapes of Wellington’s South Coast and the Titirangi bush where she grew up, her paintings evoke fleeting moments of intimacy and reflection, creating atmospheric spaces rather than specific scenes.

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Her layered brushwork - scrubbed, feathered, applied, and removed - traces physical gestures akin to dance or daily ritual. This tactile process reveals the surface’s history and creates a tension between presence and absence. Wilkinson’s compositions suggest transitions where beginnings and endings blur, inviting viewers to engage with movement, colour, and gesture on a sensory level. Wilkinson describes painting as an act of resistance - a way to slowtime and metabolise experience. For her, it is a form of poetic, non-verbal storytelling grounded in the physical. In a world saturated with instant messages, her work offers a space to pause, feel, and recollect.

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Recent exhibitions include ‘Cut Flowers’ at Jhana Millers Gallery (2025), ‘Love is Running Towards’ at Ordinance Gallery in Melbourne (2024), and ‘Forward Song’ at Jhana Millers Gallery (2023). Notable recognition includes the Supreme Winner award at the New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Award (2021) and a Merit Award at the Molly Morpeth Canaday Printing & Drawing Awards (2023).

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Exhibition Images: David Oakley