Top Floor Talks: Jaime Jenkins, Kathryn Tsui, Heidi Brickell

Top Floor Talks return on Sat 6 Jun, 10.30–11.30am.

Enjoy this series of three conversations by exhibiting artists Jaime Jenkins, Kathryn Tsui, and Heidi Brickell, alongside their curator or guest speaker.

This event is free to attend with no registration required, but always welcomed. We encourage you to stay and listen to all three conversations across the morning. 

10.30–10.50am: Jaime Jenkins in conversation with Karl Chitham
Located in Long Gallery 
Jaime Jenkins is a Tauranga Moana-based artist who creates hand-built ceramic works and installations. Having graduated from Toi Ohomai with an Advanced Diploma in Visual Art, she has gone on to develop a unique 3-dimensional visual language that explores form and environment.

Karl Chitham (Te Uriroroi, Ngāpuhi) ONZM is Director of The Dowse Art Museum. A curator and writer, he co-authored Crafting Aotearoa: A Cultural History of New Zealand and the Wider Moana Oceania and has curated major exhibitions including Whetūrangitia/Made As Stars and Reuben Paterson: The Only Dream Left and 'Whenua Hou: New Māori ceramics' as director and curator at Tauranga Art Gallery. Chitham has held roles in universities, museums and art galleries and is a trustee of Wairau Māori Art Gallery, the first dedicated public Māori art gallery in Aotearoa.

10.50–11.10am: Kathryn Tsui in conversation with Claire Regnault
Located in Long Gallery 
Kathryn Tsui is a contemporary textile-based artist currently living in Te Tara o te Ika a Māui, Coromandel Peninsula. Primarily working in handweaving and beading, her practice is interested in the histories of textiles, and how these threads relate to migration, domestic labour and cultural interchange. Underpinning her practice is the study of Chinese material culture, as well as Aotearoa New Zealand’s art, craft and architectural histories.

Claire Regnault is the Exhibition & Programmes Manager at Tauranga Museum and an Honorary Research Associate at Te Papa, where she worked as a senior curator in the History for fifteen years. A specialist in dress histories, her book Dressed: fashionable dress in Aotearoa New Zealand 1840-1910 (2021) won the award for Best Illustrated Non-Fiction at the 2022 Ockham Book Awards. She is President of Costume & Textiles Aotearoa New Zealand.

11.10–11.30am: Heidi Brickell in conversation with Van Mei
Located in Craigs Investment Partners Gallery
Heidi Brickell (Te Hika o Pāpāuma, Ngāti Kahungunu, Rongomaiwahine, Rangitāne, Ngāi Tara, Ngāti Apakura, Airihi, Kōtirana, Ingarangi, Tiamana) is a contemporary visual artist based in Ōtaki, with a background in Māori education and te reo Māori revitalisation.

Van Mei is the curator of Heidi Brickell’s major installation, presented in Toi Tauranga Art Gallery's Craigs Investment Partners Gallery.