Intaglio dry point etching in black frame. Black Intaglio ink on Fabriano paper

Framed: 470mm x 645mm

Image: 205mm x 330mm

Paper: 315mm x 430mm

Edition of 10

Signed by artist

Nyle Turuwhenua is an award-winning Waikato-based artist of Māori, Scottish, and Irish descent. She is currently completing her fourth and final year of a Bachelor of Māori Visual Arts degree at Massey University and is a proud member of the Toi Whakaata Māori Print Collective. Her multidisciplinary practice moves between printmaking, painting, sculpture, and weaving, with a strong emphasis on process-led making and material exploration.

Nyle’s work explores notions of whakapapa, connection, whenua and mātauranga Māori. For Nyle, developing skills as a weaver has been an important catalyst in her personal and artistic growth, opening pathways to reflect on identity and cultural heritage. Her printmaking and painting practice encapsulates ideas of kaitiakitanga, intergenerational knowledge, mana whenua and ancestral connection through physical making. In Nyle’s work, birds and weaving play a key role in the act of kaitiakitanga. Nyle values the tactile and the handmade, embracing the labour involved in printmaking and weaving. Both of these processes involve preparation, repeated actions, and physical dexterity, which sometimes leads to hands that are calloused and cut. For Nyle, art making is a labour of love, a journey of discovery, and a practice that fosters deep connections to self, others and whenua.