Bio

Tia Ansell is a New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based artist whose intricate canvases integrate grid-like abstraction and woven structures whilst leaving traces of the quotidian nature of applied arts. The spirit of artists such as Bauhaus legend Anni Albers and ‘maths’ art icon Agnes Martin are ingrained into the weft of works such as Mona (2021).

Ansell completed a Fine Art Honours degree at the Victorian College of the Arts at the University of Melbourne in 2018. Since that time, she has exhibited on both sides of the Tasman, including in the group show Three Hares, curated by Adam John Cullen at the Shepparton Art Museum (2023). In 2023 Tia was awarded the Lottozero residency in Prato, Italy, which facilitated her ongoing research into the relationship between weaving, textile design and the wider cultural applications of these disciplines.

In a recent interview for Art News Aotearoa, the artist discusses her engagement with weaving and modernist art practice. ‘Weavings are immersive webs … that exchange information on their substrate. Unlike most modes of making, weaving has a surface which is its structure and its structure is its surface, and any patterns embedded in its substrate are still organically part of its surface structure … My work, in a sense, is expanded painting. I think the act of stretching a textile around bars and priming it fixes it into being as a classical art object.’

Te Haerenga Collection curator Hamish Coney notes the wide cultural points of connection in Ansell’s practice. ‘Fabric design and weaving practice span broad historical, cultural and art practices, including, but by no means limited to, key art reference points such as the Bauhaus practice of German artist Anni Albers (1899–1994) and the pure abstraction of De Stijl composition, as well as culturally embedded woven forms such as Scottish tartan and raranga practice in Aotearoa as seen in complex tāniko patterns. All of these are valid points of entry in a discussion of Ansell’s programme. Mona (2021) sits at the boundary of traditional notions of high and applied art, deftly juggling these sources within the discipline of geometric abstraction.’

Exhibitions

• 2024   {Suite} Ponsonby, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland: Building Patterns
• 2024   Gallery 9, Gadigal Sydney, Australia: Coda
• 2023   Shepparton Art Museum, Victoria, Australia: Three Hares, invited artists engage with the SAM Ceramic Collection, curated by Adam John Cullen
• 2023   {Suite} Wellington, Te Whanganui-a-Tara: Ingresso
• 2023   Wangaratta Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia: Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award, finalist
• 2021   Aotearoa Art Fair, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland: {Suite} Gallery