Artists Selected For 2026 Gwen Malden Te Matau-a-Māui Art Commissions

Four Hawke’s Bay artists have been selected for the second Gwen Malden Te Matau-a-Māui Art Commissions, thanks to a partnership between Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga Hastings Art Gallery and the Gwen Malden Charitable Trust that supports and invests in local artists. 

Asaki Kajima, Leanne Morrison, Raewyn Tauira Paterson and Miria Pohatu will each receive $10,000, alongside additional support from Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga, to develop a new body of work which will be exhibited at the Gallery from August to October this year. This follows the establishment of a partnership with the Gwen Malden Charitable Trust and the first edition of commissions in 2024. 

For the last commissions, expressions of interest were sought from artists. This year, a panel was formed to cast a wider net with different voices around the table. The artists were selected by a panel of local arts advocates and leaders: Sean Coyle (Head of IDEAschool, Eastern Institute of Technology), Sophie Davis (Director, Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga), Tracy Keith (artist and former kaiako at Toimairangi School of Māori Visual Arts), Karin Strachan (Gallerist and Owner of The Rabbit Room, Napier) and Nephi Tupaea (artist and former Gwen Malden commissions recipient). 

The commissions invest in the future of artists and contemporary art in Te Matau-a-Māui Hawke’s Bay, supporting artists to make new work in challenging times and celebrating creative practice. The Gwen Malden Charitable Trust has supported a wide range of activities for the benefit of the people of Hawke’s Bay. An artist herself, Gwen Malden studied painting at the Christchurch School of Art and was a visionary supporter of the arts. 

Hastings Art Gallery Director Sophie Davis says: “We are looking forward to working with Asaki, Leanne, Miria and Raewyn and continuing our partnership with the Trust. The knowledge that we are supporting a growing group of artists over time, and can start to see the longer-term impact of the commissions, is particularly meaningful.” 

Gwen Malden Charitable Trust Chairperson Tessa Tylee says the Trust is proud to support the project once again. 

“The first exhibition was hugely successful, not only for the four incredible artists, but for how many were able to see and enjoy their work. It has been great to hear the successes those artists have had since then. 

“Times are different now in 2026 and perhaps the arts are being left behind a little as the financial belts are tightened. So it is more relevant that we once again support and celebrate another four fantastic Hawke’s Bay artists and watch their journeys toward an exhibition later this year.” 

About the artists

Asaki Kajima was born and raised in Japan. She grew up in a family with a florist business established almost a century ago. Her ethereal sculptures, made using materials found in Aotearoa, are inspired by the traditional Japanese artistic floral practice of Ikebana. Grounded by her graphic design and visual art study in Tokyo and an expanding record of exhibitions across Aotearoa, Kajima has begun to build a national profile. For instance, she received the Fieldays No.8 Wire National Art Award in 2020 and was a finalist for the RT Nelson Sculpture Award in 2025. 

Leanne Morrison is an artist of Samoan and Pākehā descent. Her paintings examine themes of relational spaces within a modernist form. While traditionally using a spray gun and air compressor on canvas, she has become interested in extending her painting off the canvas and into architectural space. Her work has been presented in galleries throughout Aotearoa, while her practice is informed by studies at the Eastern Institute of Technology in Ahuriri Napier and Whitecliffe in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. 

Raewyn Tauira Paterson (Ngāi Tūhoe) is a mixed-media artist, fascinated with contemporary forms of pattern rooted in mātauranga Māori. She graduated from the Eastern Institute of Technology in 2010 as the top overall Visual Arts and Design student. Since then, she has worked at EIT as a lecturer and educator at its IDEAschool, coordinating the Bachelor of Creative Practice degree. She is particularly proud of the community project she led to design and install tukutuku panels at EIT’s marae Te Ara O Tāwhaki. She has curated and exhibited in numerous exhibitions across Te Matau-a-Māui.

Miria Pohatu (Ngāti Porou, Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Kahungunu) is a painter who lives and teaches in Te Matau-a-Māui but was born and raised in Ruatorea, Te Tairāwhiti. Her work blends customary form with texture to create an abstract expression of her ancestral land, and encourages rangatahi to explore the cultural systems within Te Ao Māori. She has studied at Toihoukura in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa Gisborne and the Eastern Institute of Technology in Ahuriri Napier. Her work has been part of group exhibitions in Te Matau-a-Māui and further afield, including the XIV Florence Biennale as part of Tāhū Collective, a rōpū of Māori artists from the North Island’s East Coast.

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