Essential Oils Matthew Harris and Tyrone Te Waa

b. 1991, Wangaratta, Matthew Harris lives Yállabirrang Naarm, (Melbourne) is an artist of mixed Koorie and European descent. His recent paintings bring together minimal serial abstraction with familial narrative and institutional critique especially as are conveyed by materials and material histories. Parallel to his painting practice, Harris creates sculpture in a range of materials which have drawn upon the labour of family members and icons of European sculpture. A queer sensibility underpins the work. Humour operates as a vessel for disruptive content.

Harris was a studio artist at Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne from 2020 to 2023. In 2024, he completed his first public art commission at 602 Little Bourke St, Melbourne, at Make Room, a collaborative project between government and the philanthropic sector to address the critical needs of homelessness in Melbourne.

Tyrone Te Waa (Ngāti Tūwharetoa) likens his preparations for art-making to foraging before cooking – his exuberant palette of materials – wood, fabric, paint and string – is found or gifted, then assembled through methods of binding, knotting, felting and wrapping to make wearable and unwearable objects, wall works and installations. His autobiographical and ancestral reflection is informed by research into takatāpui/gay/queer histories in Aotearoa New Zealand.

He completed a Master of Creative Practice at Unitec Institute of Technology Te Whare Wānanga o Wairaka in 2021. In 2022 he received an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Te Tumu Toi Springboard Award. Recent exhibitions include: How to Make a Home, Objectspace (2024); Kumara Kuīni (NZ Idol) Awards Ceremony in Aotearoa Contemporary, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki (2024), Te Rūma Moenga / The Mattress Room (Memory Foam), Casula Powerhouse (2024), WīWī WāWā, Anna Miles Gallery, 2023 and Whetūrangitia/Made As Stars, Dowse Art Museum (2022).