Jade Townsend

born 1986, Whanganui; lives and works in Tāmaki Makaurau

Ngāti Kahungunu, Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi

Jade Townsend is a multi-disciplinary artist, curator, and writer 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. Townsend holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in painting from Manchester Metropolitan University and has undertaken residencies at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, Red Gate Gallery in Beijing, Artspace Aotearoa and Objectspace in Tāmaki Makaurau, and Tylee Cottage in Whanganui. Recent exhibitions include He Whare Ātaahua (solo), Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga Hastings Art Gallery, 2023–24; Te Ara i Whiti (group), Te Tairāwhiti Arts Festival, 2024; and Nō Konei | From Here (group), Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery, 2024–25. In 2022, Townsend established Season with Francis McWhannell.

'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
Enquire
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
Enquire

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