Jade Townsend

born 1986, Whanganui

Ngāti Kahungunu, Te Ātihaunui-a-Pāpārangi

Jade Townsend is a multi-disciplinary artist 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 transparent processes. 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.'
JADE TOWNSEND
Neke, neke. You are free, 2022
Part of Turning a page, starting a chapter, 2022
Gus Fisher Gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau
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JADE TOWNSEND
Hīnaki, 2022
Mixed media
JADE TOWNSEND
Forecast / four caste, 2022
Mixed media and custom oak bracket
1560 x 1750 x 75mm
Private collection, Te Tai Tokerau
JADE TOWNSEND
Takapuna 2, 2022
Mixed media and custom oak bracket
1540 x 850 x 75mm
Private collection, Tāmaki Makaurau
JADE TOWNSEND
Takapuna 3, 2022
Mixed media and custom oak bracket
1540 x 850 x 75mm
Private collection, Tāmaki Makaurau
JADE TOWNSEND
The purple/blue night at Takapuna beach, 2022–23
(From The multipliers)
Acrylic on linen, unframed
2000 x 1300mm
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JADE TOWNSEND
Our first swim, 2022–23
(From The multipliers)
Acrylic on linen in custom sapele frame
1000 x 750mm
Private collection, Tāmaki Makaurau
JADE TOWNSEND
Sister, sister, 2022–23
(From The multipliers)
Acrylic on linen in custom sapele frames
700 x 500mm (each panel)
Private collection, Tāmaki Makaurau
JADE TOWNSEND
Blood red moon, 2022–23
(From The multipliers)
Acrylic on linen in custom sapele frame
650 x 540mm
Haerenga Collection, Tāmaki Makaurau