Closet History Tania Lewis-Rickard and Tawhai Rickard

Tania Lewis-Rickard is a multidisciplinary artist, visual arts educator and community advocate based in Tauranga Moana. Her practice spans painting, light sculpture, photography and video art installation. With a signature mixed-media approach, she incorporates multiple techniques to create artworks with interplaying layers of meaning.

Art is central to her service to community, guided by the ethos of toi aroha, toi rongoā, toi tautoko – artworks of love, healing and advocacy. Through the effects of pattern and colour, light and shadow, the artist forges visual metaphors that speak to the heart; raising awareness of social issues and affirming identity and belonging.

Tania completed her art studies at Waiariki Institute of Technology - Rotorua, Massey University Toioho ki Āpiti – Palmerston North, and Waikato University. She is the founder of ‘Kai Aroha’ 2016, a non-profit charity designed to combat food poverty in Tauranga Moana by providing free community meals. Tania has been recognised for both her artistic and community contributions, including as a Kiwibank Local Hero Award (2020), as a nominated finalist for the Western Bay Community Awards, a multi-time finalist in the 'Miles Art Award' at Tauranga Art Gallery, recipient of the Rotorua Art Awards, and placed in the top twenty finalists of the Trustpower Photographic Competition. These recognitions reflect a lifelong commitment to community service and using art as a platform for cultural empowerment and collective wellbeing.

Tawhai Rickard is a Tauranga-based artist from Tūranganui-a-Kiwa. Through the astute combination of materials, patterns and concepts from both Māori and Western origins, his sculptural and painted works explore the historical and contemporary constructs of biculturalism in New Zealand, revisiting and reimagining the events of Captain James Cook’s first landing in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa around 250 years ago and the subsequent influence this encounter enforced on national identity, culture and thought. His medium is predominately paint and whakairo (carving); manipulating ornate reclaimed wood and found materials.

Tawhai completed his art studies at Waiariki Institute of Technology – Rotorua, Massey University Toioho ki Āpiti – Palmerston North, and Tairāwhiti Polytechnic. Tawhai has received numerous prestigious art awards recognising his outstanding contribution to both the historical and contemporary cultural narratives of Aotearoa New Zealand. These include: National Contemporary Art Award – Supreme Winner 2023, Walker & Hall Waiheke Art Award – Premier Award Winner 2022, Miles Art Award, Tauranga Art Gallery – Supreme Winner 2018, Te Hā Art Award – Tairāwhiti Museum Inaugural Winner 2016, and the Battle of Gate Pā 150th Commemoration Art Award (Pukehinahina) – Supreme Winner 2014.