Fiona Pardington to represent Aotearoa in Venice

Saturday, 25 January 2025

Fiona Pardington is the next artist to represent New Zealand at the Venice Biennale, referred to as the Olympics of the art world. By André Chumko.

Hot off the back of Mataaho Collective winning big at last year’s La Biennale di Venezia, claiming the prestigious Golden Lion award for their work Takapau, it’s now Waimate-based Dr Fiona Pardington, known for her photography, who will take the mantle and bring Aotearoa art to the world in 2026.

Pardington was this week announced as the artist representing New Zealand’s national pavilion at the international cultural exhibition that focuses on showcasing the best contemporary art from different nations.

In an interview with The Post from her home in Hunter, north of Waimate, Pardington (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Mamoe, Ngāti Kahungunu, Clan Cameron), who has worked as an artist for more than four decades, said her theme working towards Venice would be “everything …Tahu”, a reference to one of her tribes.

Pardington was born in Auckland and later studied at Elam School of Fine Arts. Her father was a painter and paper hanger, and later a commercial fisherman, while her mother, a housewife and legal secretary, would take her to the library each week with her younger brother Neil, now a well-regarded designer and artist in his own right. Pardington’s mother had some friends who took photographs, who she remembers modelling for as a dribbly toddler in items including a beautiful angora wool jumper with embroidered rosebuds.

It was when she was six years old she had an epiphany to pursue art.

“Whatever happened to me, [art] was there, that was my place. It was a citadel, I suppose. Nobody can really come in; impose themselves; tell you what to do. I was a real nerdy kid at school with glasses, braces, pimples. So I had art. I’m not going to be off to the surf club, to the parties and hanging out with all the cool guys, but I’m going to be an artist. So that’s what I did.”

After first drawing recognition in the 1980s Pardington’s work has continued to evolve, most often operating within, and extending, the still life genre. It includes objects from museum collections. She’s now considered one of New Zealand’s leading photographers.

Her work is evocative and emotionally intense, said Blair Jackson, director of the Christchurch Art Gallery, the new delivery partner for the biennale who will ensure the pavilion’s curation, delivery and day-to-day management.

When she was younger it was hard for Pardington to say she was anything outside that artist identity ‒ “but in fact, there is more to you”. Part of that is because art is what Pardington loves doing. But she loves so much more than that, too.

She loves the great European and American contemporary photographers whom she encountered inside confusing and inspiring and shocking books at Elam’s library, and the more historic artists like Brassaï who she says continue to inspire her. “If I could time travel, I’d just go and hang out with Brassaï.”

She loves her husband Josh Horgan, a collector of antiques with encyclopaedic knowledge, who she learns off every day. She loves foraging ephemera from the outdoors such as bones, feathers and stones. She loves travelling. She loves driving her car to get around and experience new spaces, and considers this her hobby. She loves animals, especially the goofy ones. She loves things made of blown or cut glass because they look like they were made by angels.

During our interview she shows me wacky coloured poodles and a pheasant and elephants by old masters that she keeps among other treasures like a collection of small, unusually glazed Crown Lynn vases. Most of her stuff is in storage. “I'm a bit silly, but I’m happy. And it kind of calms me down just looking at stuff like that every day.”

One thing she really loves is being surrounded by bird life: the tomtit/miromiro, a friendly rifleman, rare South Island robins, the bellbird/korimako, grey warblers/riroriro, paradise ducks and kākā. Each morning it’s a cacophony. As well as the regenerative bush on her 20ha property there’s a nearby stream used by locals for water which is blissful to hear. She and Josh moved here about four years ago, escaping the last Covid-19 lockdown afflicting Auckland. While the pair love it in Waimate they want to be closer to the sea, which Pardington likes to listen to and walk by.

Pardington’s aware of the shoes she’s filling off the backs of Mataaho, and says she’s in awe of all four women who comprise it. It was a long time coming for them (and Aotearoa) to be recognised on such a scale, she added. “It's really important that people realise that we are more than just our sporting greats. When people give our artists an equal footing and opportunity … this is what can be achieved. And there's many other people that could do that, too.”

She emphasises the team around her who she describes as family, including her wonderful curators; Dominic Feuchs, the director of Starkwhite gallery that represents her; writer Andrew Paul Wood who she calls a muse; Hana O'Regan, her “Māori goddess” cousin; and her accountant and best friend Hunter Dolan.

It was a great surprise to be chosen and she wanted to thank everybody involved.

“To tell you the truth I try not to spend too much time stalking the art world on the internet or bitching about what other people are doing or getting nervous or feeling challenged by other people's excellent work, because there's so much of it,” Pardington says.

“I just like to bird watch and go to the beach, hang out with my husband and my dog and just stay really grounded. It might sound a bit cliché. … I’m an over-thinker, I get obsessed with ideas, and I don't stop working. And so Josh is good. He's always saying … let’s go and do something.”

While details of what Pardington will show at Venice are still nebulous, she’s confident carrying the process forward.

“One of the things about my life is that I’m really secure in my practice. I love learning new things. I’m really curious. So every day, I’m striving to find some hidden aspect of something, to come forward and to be recognised. … I know that I can achieve something significant for myself, for my collaborators, the people that mean a lot for me, and also for the arts community.”

Because she’s constantly working, she’s spoilt for choice when it comes to having nascent art that’s just waiting to pop out fully-formed. What she can say is that what she plans to exhibit will not be too far a departure from her usual style.

“It’s that practice of bringing a certain structural constellation around you that is going to settle in a really encouraging and curious way and spark interest. … I think I know how to take something there which is all about us, all about Aotearoa,” she said.

“In the past, people go, ‘well, why does Fiona photograph museum collections of birds, and how does that relate to the larger art world? Where’s that engagement? Where's that foothold?’ Well, the fact is that now with the way the world is, nature is so much more precarious. People are more informed and they don’t take so much of nature for granted, and we’re worried about how our birds are doing and how our trees are doing and what the possums are doing. … Suddenly, maybe people have a better understanding of [my work] than maybe they have in the past, and it probably holds a relevance now internationally for the same reasons ‒ that we all care.”

The Venice Biennale opens in April 2026.