Mangawhai-based artists Jocelyn Friis, Elena Nikolaeva, Kylee Newbold and Antonia Cooney's latest exhibition offers insight into freedom and diversity of subject through creativity. As the title suggests, their intention is to go beyond established limits, norms or expectations, blurring the boundaries. The exhibition is colourful and joyful, reflecting the beautiful surrounding environment.

Jocelyn Friis

Jocelyn creates semi-abstract land and seascapes from her coastal studio in Mangawhai. Working in acrylic and encaustic, she explores the tension between nature’s resilience and vulnerability, and our relationship to it. Rather than depicting specific scenes, Jocelyn’s works emerge from intuition and emotion. Beginning with free, spontaneous marks, she shifts between instinct and thoughtful refinement to create balanced, harmonious works. Each piece is an invitation to pause, reflect, and connect - offering a gentle reminder that art and nature can bring peace, hope, and meaning to our lives.

Originally from Cape Town, South Africa, Jocelyn is a four time award-winning artist and CreativeNZ grant recipient. She has exhibited widely across New Zealand and more recently in the UK. Jocelyn is also a qualified facilitator for Art & Creativity for Healing and offers workshops locally and online.

Kylee Newbold

Kylee Newbold is a colour loving creative, drawn to a variety of mediums and techniques. Currently working within the world of textile and fibre art, Kylee’s work explores the value of textile “waste” and second hand materials.

Having completed a Bachelor of Media Arts at Wintec in Kirikiriroa, Kylee has spent years experimenting with a variety of media including moving image, photography, printmaking, painting, jewellery making and most recently rug tufting.

Kylee’s love of sharing creativity experiences runs deep with over 20 years of facilitating workshops for both rangatahi and adults to find joy and strengthen wellbeing through art making. Kylee regularly hosts creative play workshops across Te Tai Tokerau.

A desire to learn new skills, creative problem solving, bold colour combinations and repurposing materials continually inspires Kylee’s art practice.

Elena Nikolaeva

Elena was born and grew up in a big city in the middle of Russia.

She studied visual arts for five years at the Urals State University. Upon completion of her course, Elena received an appointment to teach painting at the same university - a position which she held for many years.

In her artistic career, Elena has participated in a number of exhibitions, both in Russia and abroad. She obtained an official membership of the State Artists Unity of Russia.

She became a full-time artist when she moved to New Zealand in 2000.

Now Elena lives near Mangawhai, where she is actively involved in the Northland arts community.

She is a member of Mangawhai Artists Inc from the very beginning. Elena has annual successful exhibitions at MAI Gallery

For a number of years, she runs regular workshops and classes of visual arts for adults in Mangawhai, Auckland area and Northland.

Elena’s favourite area is mixed media. She loves artistic experiments, exploring limits of visual art, creating 2D and 3D objects.

“As far back as I can remember, I was always playing with different materials and objects which my environment provided. Either an odd piece of firewood, or a rusty metal part from the machinery in my father's workshop, I loved to touch them, feel their texture, weight, smell.

I always like to share the knowledge I obtain, the passion I have.

Through all my adult life I have been teaching painting. In Russia at the university... here in NZ... running classes of acrylic, oils and watercolour painting for adults, for those who want to learn this very special language of colour, the language of magic illusion of the visual arts.

Antonia Cooney

“I love exploring my imagination through art and travel. Europe in particular and the history of its great painters is a constant inspiration.”

“Blur the Boundaries” is an exhibition Antonia is part of; the opening night being on Boxing Day running for two weeks in the Mangawhai Gallery.

This latest exhibition was inspired from being in Italy and Greece this year. “I’ve always had a fetish for fishing villages and provincial French towns and love rocking into the local way of life!”

People are her main subject applying charcoal, graphite and ink mediums but Antonia also splashes out fun and funky acrylic paintings appealing to a wide age bracket.

Antonia is a qualified graphic artist where she worked for magazines but a strong passion for interior design lead her to work in this industry opening her own studio in Queenstown at one stage.

A quote left from an artist friend often resonates ;

“Drawing is the speech of art, mind and hand working together. It is thought made visible.”

Blur the Boundaries

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