Born in 1971, Jane Henzell graduated with a Master of Fine Arts
from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology after completing a
Diploma of Interior Design (with distinction) from UNITEC in
Auckland in 1990. Henzell has been a lecturer at the Design School
and the Faculty of Architecture and Design at UNITEC since 1995. In
2006, she relocated to London to work as an assistant to Damien
Hirst, enfant terrible of the British art scene. Her
devotion to her career in teaching has been matched by her
dedication to a full exhibiting schedule and painting regime.
Much of Henzell's work explores the painterly aspect of the
influence of Japanese gestural calligraphy in the context of
Western historical traditions of art, combining the lyrical
qualities of paint with a fascination for the history of the
decorative context.
Henzell explains that, "in 19th Century New Zealand,
aspiring
artists undertook practical examination in art by sitting
the Department of Sciences and Art examination from South
Kensington, London. A chief requirement of this examination was the
design of wallpaper pattern based on New Zealand native flora. A
tacit function of such a prescription was to educate artisans and
consumers alike in the interests of British trade and Industry. It
intrigues me to think of what this genteel convention of the late
19th Century, with its underlying economic imperative might look
like were it to be relocated in time."
"The native flora and fauna imagery is derived from historical
paintings of botanical studies which were made largely by New
Zealand colonial women. They gathered in their leisure time
drinking gin and tonic and painting flowers from the garden. I
allude to this largely unheralded tradition of flower painting with
intent to acknowledge and engage the manner in which women
practitioners have been historically constituted."