Grocer Gallery is excited to open its doors with its inaugural exhibition, Frontier. The exhibition features a selection of new works by Jaime Jenkins, Salome Tanuvasa, Ruby Wilkinson, Grace Mirams, and Liam Philp.
This show marks the official launch of Mount Maunganui’s newest contemporary art space.
Jaime Jenkins is a Mount Maunganui-based artist celebrated for her intricate hand-built stoneware, which pushes the boundaries of what clay can achieve. Balancing functionality and fragility, her works include organic, structural forms and recurring motifs like chains and bells—objects that challenge the brittleness of clay while creating movement and sound. Her glazes evoke the textures and tones of nature, with hues ranging from earthy reds to celestial blues, inspired by her deep connection to natural environments.
Recent highlights include Sonic Tapestry, a collaborative piece with Séraphine Pick in Rider Instinct at Te Uru, Ceramics, a collaborative show with Janna van Hasselt at The Arts House Trust, and Falling and falling at Jhana Millers Gallery in Wellington. A graduate of Toi Ohomai, Jenkins has trained under Laurie Steer and Francis Upritchard, earning accolades like Dame Doreen’s Gift from the Blumhardt Foundation. Her work is held in Te Papa’s collection.
Salome Tanuvasa is a Samoan-Tongan artist based in Auckland whose multidisciplinary practice spans textiles, moving image, drawing, photography, and sculpture. Her work reflects her immediate surroundings and explores intergenerational connections and environmental motifs. “One can’t help but see them as the artist creating her own language – or code – of swirls and shapes…They are gestural and instinctual but they also encourage the viewer into an unexpected space of contemplation.” – Lana Lopesi.
A graduate of Elam School of Fine Arts (MFA, 2014). Her recent exhibitions include Mum & Dad’s Garden at Night (The Central Art Gallery, 2024), Joyous (Tim Melville, 2024) and To Be at Home (Hastings City Art Gallery, 2023). Her works are held in major collections, including the Chartwell Collection, and she has exhibited widely across New Zealand, Sydney, and Shanghai.
Ruby Wilkinson is a Pōneke-based artist (Wellington) whose practice translates inspiration from place and memory through emotive physical painting. Represented by Jhana Millers Gallery, Ruby is a graduate of Massey University’s School of Art in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington). She has exhibited frequently in Pōneke and across Aotearoa (New Zealand).
Her most recent show, LOVE IS RUNNING TOWARDS, was held at Ordinance in Naarm (Melbourne). This follows a string of achievements, including being named Supreme Winner of the NZ Painting and Printmaking Award in 2022 and receiving a Merit Award in the Molly Morpeth Canaday Drawing and Printing competition in 2023.
Grace Mirams is an artist based in Aotearoa, celebrated for her innovative monotype printmaking. Her process involves meticulous material exploration and spontaneity, layering and removing ink with brushes, rags, and the etching press. This approach imbues her works with energy and texture, reflecting themes of impermanence and movement. Often incorporating silk and welded steel frames, her pieces gain sculptural depth and challenge traditional notions of printmaking. Grace studied design and fine arts at Toi Rauwhārangi College of Creative Arts (Massey University, Wellington) and developed her techniques under the mentorship of APS Editions.
Recent exhibitions include I’m at the river, I’ll meet you by the sea at Gallery Crossing, Japan (2023), a solo show at Public Record, Aotearoa (2022), and participation in Ateliermo Tokyo. Grace has just completed a residency ‘The Buinho Residency’ in Portugal.
Liam Philp (b. 2003) is an artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Philp’s work explores the relationship between the images and history, examining the role of the photograph as both a precondition and a symptom of cultural production. Through an engagement with images, both found and his own, Philp explores the role of representation and re-presentation in relation to the history of European settlement in Aotearoa. Reenactment films, settler museums and heritage sites are the germ of a broader investigation into the role of collective memory, past and future temporalities, and cultural mythologies.
The images featured in this exhibition are from the series ‘Now men see not the bright light which is in the clouds’, an ongoing project exploring the history of gold mining in Te Waipounamu. Through an engagement with historic sites and the narratives embedded within them, Philp is interested in how the present remains haunted by this aspect of our national-colonial past.
