Bio

Jade Townsend (Ngāti Kahungunu, Te Ātihaunui-a-Pāpārangi) is a multi-disciplinary artist working at the intersection of 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 (legends) made her aware of the limitations of translation and cultural hybridity as transparent processes. Through a range of handmade interventions, she interrogates materials to reveal their transformative qualities. She has stated: ‘The notion of being two 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.

Townsend graduated with a BA (Hons) Fine Art from the Manchester Metropolitan University. In recent years she has undertaken an artist residency at Artspace Aotearoa (2021) and was a 2024 Tylee Cottage, Whanganui, artist in residence.

Townsend’s practice also spans curatorial projects such as Whānau Mārama, a group show installed in the retail environment of Commercial Bay in downtown Tāmaki Makaurau (2021) and Hauhake at Objectspace (2020) as part of the Caravannex residency.

She is also a founding director of Season gallery in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, a gallery dedicated to providing exhibition opportunities for contemporary Māori artists in Aotearoa.

Blood Red Moon (2022–23) was acquired for Te Haerenga Collection from the Season stand at the 2023 Aotearoa Art Fair. This canvas is from Townsend’s Multiplier series of works, which takes its inspiration from the worldview of the Māori moon goddess Hina, who provided for Townsend a means to explore her life experience through the lens of Māori mythology. ‘Operating in this territory I am able … to be in active conversation with the original dreamers – Robyn Kahukiwa, John Hovell, Pauline Yearbury and Sandy Adsett.

Exhibitions

• 2024   Te Ara i Whiti: Te Tairāwhiti Arts Festival, Gisborne: Alloy
  
• 2023   Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga Hastings Art Gallery: He Whare Ātaahua: Jade Townsend
  
• 2023   Uber Bryan Gallery, Bowling Green State University, Ohio, USA: Sticks and Stones
  
• 2023   Aotearoa Art Fair, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland: Season
  
• 2022   Season, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland: Hono: Jade Townsend and Neke Moa
  
• 2021   Artspace Aotearoa, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland: When the Dust Settles
  
• 2020   Page Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington: Homesick / Sickhome