Working between weaving, photography, watercolour, mobiles, and origami, Yasmin Dubrau creates abstract landscapes. Drawing patterns and shapes from environmental and architectural elements, her work loosens fixed viewpoints and blurs boundaries.
Having lived for several years in Japan, Dubrau’s watercolours reference traditions of ink painting and calligraphy, where swift brushstrokes do not define edges but evoke the essence of form and space. Planes of translucent colour build upon one another, creating compositions with depth and quiet intensity.
Central to her practice is a cyclical understanding of time, not as a straight line, but as a circle, a spiral, a breath. Her work responds to seasonal cycles and the ephemeral rhythms of nature, interweaving past, present, and future, and the human and non-human. In their stillness, they make visible the continuous movement underlying all things.
Born in Motueka, Yasmin Dubrau studied painting at Unitec in Auckland and lived in Miharu, Fukushima, Japan from 2007 – 2011. She has been based in Heretaunga Hastings for the past twelve years. Dubrau has exhibited nationally and internationally, with notable shows at Objectspace, 2014, and Art Attic Gallery, 2024. She also spent seven years managing and teaching at the Hōhepa Rose Weavery in Hawke’s Bay.
Nā te raranga, te whakaahua, te peita wai, ngā kaui, me te whētuitui i waihanga ai e Yasmin Dubrau he toi taiao tūrehurehu. Mā te whai i ngā tauira me ngā āhua o te taiao me te hanganga whare ka whakangawarihia ngā tirohanga pūmau, ā, ka whakakorikoria ngā pae here e āna mahi.
Kua roa ia e noho ana ki Hapanī, nā konā, e hāngai ana ngā peita wai a Dubrau ki ngā tikanga tuku iho o te peita ā-waituhi me te tuhi rerehua ā-ringa. Ehara i te mea ka tautuhia ngā tapa e ngā tahinga parāhe engari ka whakaatu i te wairua i te āhua me te wāhi. Ka noho paparanga ngā papa whakatīaho kia hua mai he hangahanga tataonga tae hōhonu e kitakita ana.
Ko te aronga matua o āna mahi ko te māramatanga o te huringa o te wā — ehara i te rārangi tōtika, engari he porowhita, he tōrino, ā, he hā kē. He urupare āna mahi ki ngā huringa o ngā kaupeka me ngā ia poto o te taiao, mā te whatu i te onamata, te inamata me te anamata, te tangata me momo kē atu. I roto i tō rātou marino, ka ngangahu mai te ko te nekeneke motukore te tūāpapa o ngā mea katoa.
I whānau mai a Yasmin Dubrau ki Motueka, i ako ia i te toi peita ki Unitec i Tāmaki Makaurau, ā, i noho ia ki Miharu, ki Fukushima, i Hapanihi, mai i te 2007 ki te 2011. Kua noho ia ki Heretaunga Hastings mō ngā tau tekau mā rua kua hori. Kua whakaaturia āna mahi i te motu whānui, ki tāwāhi, tae atu ki ngā whakaaturanga rongonui ki Objectspace (2014) me Art Attic Gallery (2024). I pau hoki i a ia ngā tau e whitu ki te whakahaere me te whakaako ki te Rose Weavery a Hōhepa ki Te Matau-a-Māui.
