Ocean River Tidings (after Hone Tuwhare) Elliot Collins

This work was part of Elliot Collin's first exhibition in Whakatū Nelson, which explored time and place, attempting to tap into a universal connection of memory and location. His poetry and painting sit in the liminal spaces of abstraction towards a kind of solid meditation.

These short phrases or three-word stories hold more potency in them than what first appears. Each holds a world of experience or movement, growth, or history. They are meant to provoke further reading and contemplation as to how they are connected to us the viewer or the world around us. These works provide more questions than answers as is the usual outcome of Elliot’s practice. 

Each painting is designed to linger in your mind or echo in your memory and work slowly in a process contemplation and reflection. Each work captures moments in time that are often fleeting or mundane yet in retrospect are often the true makers of passing time. These are collective concepts that weave us together, distinct yet similar in our collective journeys through the world. 

Elliott Collins won the prestigious Molly Morpeth Canaday Contemporary Art Award in 2024. He holds PhD in visual art from Auckland University of Technology. His work is held in significant private and institutional collections locally, including the Auckland Art Gallery, as well as internationally.

Ships from Waitara