Sandra Bushby’s paintings are, at their most simple, experiments in form, colour and gesture. With her use of symmetry, spatial armatures, and a contrasting of soft and crisp edges, one sees an adherence to a set of conditions; conditions through which she produces a variety of works that court the unknown. Engaging philosophies of emergence, new materialism, colour sensation and phenomenology, Bushby extend the act of making to that of viewing. The open unpainted spaces in her work, oscillating between presence and absence, invite the viewer’s projection. Inchoate by design, such paintings readily draw inference, suggestive not only of space, but also movement and time. They operate across varying registers of perception and understanding; concerning not only the representational image, but also that which is abstract, verbal and textual. Though her work, Bushby actively connects with a lineage of female painters, poets and writers from New Zealand and abroad; sharing themes of place, memory and feeling.
Sandra Bushby (b. 1965, Te Matau-a-Māui Hawkes Bay, Aotearoa New Zealand) lives and works in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. She holds a Doctorate of Fine Arts from the Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland (2022). Bushby has exhibited widely across Aotearoa in recent years, and her work is held in notable collections, including Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand and Auckland Museum, as well as private collections in New Zealand, Australia and Europe. Selected exhibitions include: Pouring Light (2024, Sumer Gallery), Blue Fleur (2021, Ilam Campus Gallery, two-person show), Sea Garden (2022, Sumer Gallery), Edges and Openings (2020, Sumer Gallery), Species of Spaces (2019, George Fraser Gallery), Turning Tides (2018, Elam Project Space), It All Depends Upon (2016, Two Rooms Gallery), and A Space to Live In (2014, Window Gallery).