Nadia Curnow draws inspiration from an international canon of art history, distilling and combining artistic influences from a wide range of ‘big names’ into unique paintings that blend abstract and figurative elements.

Based in Timaru, Curnow brings her cosmopolitan background as an artist, having lived and worked across Europe, marrying it with an appreciation of the geographically and culturally distinct art of this country to produce an exuberant and personal body of work exploring the medium of painting.

These paintings are oblique homages to a variety of artists (from titans of modern art such as Malevich and Rothko to lesser known but important modernists such as Etel Adnan and Mary Fedden, and luminaries of New Zealand art including Billy Apple and Jaqueline Fahey). She also pays tribute to practitioners in other art forms – the Aotearoa New Zealand poet Allen Curnow and the Italian Futurist dancer Giannina Censi.

Main image: Nadia Curnow, Untitled, 2025, oil on paper. Image courtesy of the artist.

Left image: Nadia Curnow, Piano Concert, 2025, oil on canvas. Image courtesy of the artist.