In our minds & where we are

Our 2025 Next Generation Artists' showcase, In our minds and where we are, brings together six Wellington artists in years 11-13 of high school.

Working across painting, drawing and photography, all artists applied to this exhibition in response to our Open Call and were selected on account of the highly individual quality of their work and the dedication that all showed to their art. As a whole, this exhibition explores worlds perceived and worlds imagined; presenting portraits, memories, dreams and meditations. 

Thank you to sponsors Gordon Harris Wellington for their support of our Next Generation Showcase and accompanying Open Day on 27 July. 
 

Lydia M. Fagan's paintings of Dom Polski (Polish House), the community hub she had frequented since childhood explores her relationship with her community through place. Her images while focusing on the mundane, rows of chairs and stacked cups for tea, are beautifully executed in bright colours and stark, unblended shading techniques. Her images are laced with nostelgia, reading as a love letter to the building and to fond memories of community events and parties. 

Maia Fletcher Walker's fine liner drawings on paper are hypnotic and exacting. Her drawings often begin from an observation - for example the need for self expression through clothing and art. Her drawings are not planned but grow intuitively, with lines and patterns building on one another in the way that thoughts arrive and collect in our minds. Maia enjoys keeping the meaning of her work open-ended, allowing people to find their own meaning in her work.

Paintings by Sophia Khrypko include a thoughtful portrait of her younger sister. The process of inspiration started when her mother once shared old black and white photos of the Ukranian side of Sophia's family. These grayscale portraits of family members in traditional garments and accessories, accompanied by her mother's stories of the individual tale of each person, sparked a desire to continue this "tradition" of black and white portraits, and make her own to add to this collection.

Piccolo Simma's detailed ink drawings merge human, animal and alien forms in surreal, graphic landscapes. Piccolo's drawings are awe inspiring in their amount of detail. 'I keep coming back to ink', he writes. 'What I love about ink is the impact it creates, especially black on white. High contrast just grabs my attention right away. It also helps with my discipline; there is nowhere to hide, nothing will be coloured or painted out. This demands that the artist is precise and confident in their brush stroke, but also knowing when to stop. It is very easy to go too far, to draw one line too many'.

Photographer Suji Son joins our showcase for a second year, presenting evocative photographs taken on her 35mm film camera. Suji's carefully composed photographs capture place as seen through her experience of moving through it. Glass reflects and objects are soft with blur. For this exhibition she presents photographs taken in Vietnam and Johnsonville, Wellington.  

Yukon “Yuko” Thorpe is a Wellington based expressionist artist who works primarily with mixed media and figurative maximalism. Yuko’s work is drawn almost exclusively from imagination and dreams - using vivid whimsical colours and fluid compositions to create almost magical or fairy tale like scenes. Their paintings in this exhibition include a large scale work inspired by Klimt's The Kiss. Yuko's version depicts the sun embracing her lover, the moon before she must rise to awaken the world. "After waking up early to watch the sunrise, I fell back asleep and dreamt of what I saw. I saw the sun and the moon as  sentient, living creatures. The most holy of holies. I saw how they forever chased each other as day turns into night and night breaks into day. I saw them forever beckon each other, following the light and the darkness each one leaves in the hope of just a second side by side".