TANJA SIMONS
I am a New Zealand multimedia artist, working from my garden studio in Three Kings, Auckland.
My work, like me, can sometimes be unconventional. I don’t like being stereotyped, and I don’t want my work to fit into a fixed category; but what does pervade all of my current work is a sense of nostalgia, memory, and meaning.
After studying Art History and Marketing back in the 1990s, I went on to work in retail banking in New Zealand, and then investment banking in London for 9 years after a brief stint at an art gallery in Camden Town. Commerce may have been a good fit with my analytical self, but it rarely allowed my creative self to flourish. As a result, I enrolled in many different art courses and became a member of many art societies. These creative pursuits included photography, life drawing, felt-making, screen-printing, pottery, aquatint and painting. Currently, I am enrolled in a year-long painting course at Browne School of Art.
I love to make, create, and problem solve; and my three favourite arts—sewing, photography and painting—allow me to fulfill these loves. Like many of my generation who grew up with parents that emigrated from war torn countries in the 1950s, we learnt how to upcycle, be self-sufficient, and be inventive with what we had. Our parents were often makers and DIY enthusiasts who filled their spare time with practical pursuits. This philosophy is embedded in my work.
After returning to New Zealand in the early 2000s I became a teacher and mother. With less free time my creative endeavours were mainly centred around domestic and school activities. I sewed clothing; ran mosaic workshops; made costumes and props for school plays; ran a market stall selling clothing that I had designed and made; and then I got into tutoring sewing at night school, which I am still doing some 12 or so years later.
Fast forward to now, I’m currently 60, and owning it!
My current work was borne from the rediscovery of the life drawings I made in the 1990s. I initially wondered how they would look if I stitched them, and then I remembered that I had a few nude and topless photos of myself, and I was thinking of how awkward I felt about myself then, and how I now don’t give a damn! How could I show my changing body, acknowledge my younger self, and celebrate me now?
Simply Me is that journey.
Upcoming Exhibition
Solo exhibition, Becroft Gallery, Lake House Arts Centre, 1 March - 12 March 2026.
Opening Sunday 1 March 4-6pm
Artist Awards
Ultimate Award, Members' Merit Competition, 2025 Lake House Arts