The Good Oil

In this episode, I sit down with Brendon Leung.

Brendon has a Bachelor of Design and Visual Arts and a Master of Design, both from the Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland.

Brendon has several solo and group exhibitions to his name, including most recently at the Aotearoa Art Fair with Trish Clark. He has been the recipient of the The Karekare House Residency and has won the The Siddell Memorial Award at the Eden Arts Young Artists Awards, and his work is held in, and exhibited at, the Arts House Trust at Pah Homestead, and, surprise surprise, I’m a huge fan of his work too.

There are images of the works that we talk about on The Good Oil Brendon Leung Instagram Post for your reference.

You’ll hear Brendon talk about how he wants the materials and often found supports to present their histories and have a direct presence in the paintings, that his mothers cooking advice has found its way into his painting practice, the Eastern and Buddhist philosophy that he wants to embody in the work and how, despite the practice being abstract, how he tries to make paintings like people by building a sense of character into them.

In this episode, I sit down with Cora-Allan Twiss at her studio in Tāmaki Makaurau.

This episode is part of a series I’m delivering this season for the McCahon House Parehuia Residency, celebrating their 20th Anniversary, where I’m volunteering the services of The Good Oil to highlight the wonderful and important work they do, and some of their very impressive alumni, which includes Cora-Allan.

Cora-Allan completed a Bachelor of Visual Art and Design (in photography) in 2007 and completed her master's degree in visual art and design (in performance) from Auckland University of Technology in 2013.

Her work is held in numerous public and private collections, including Te Papa Tongarewa, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, Otago Museum, National Museum of Scotland, Auckland Museum, New Bedford Whaling Museum, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki in the Chartwell Collection and the Adam Art Gallery Collection.

Cora-Allan is represented by The Central Gallery in Ōtotahi Christchurch.

There are images of the works that we talk about on The Good Oil Cora-Allan Twiss Instagram Post for your reference.

We spend a good chunk of this chat discussing hiapo. For the uninitiated, hiapo encompasses the Niuean tradition of tapa cloth making, including the creation of the cloth itself, the application of inks to add patterns, motifs and figurative elements that appear on the cloth. Not to be confused with Siapo, the Samoan tapa cloth tradition.

In the episode, you’ll hear her talk about how important materials are in facilitating a connection to family and Niuean community, not least of all, tea towels, the nuances of sharing knowledge of the hiapo tradition, her very personal, but almost unintentional beginnings, of a hiapo practice that now defines who she is, and, I think one of the most unexpected, but fantastic and romantic answers I have ever got to that final question I always ask.

In this episode, I sit down with Emma Fitts at Melanie Roger Gallery in Tāmaki Makaurau.

This episode is part of a series I’m delivering this season for the McCahon House Parehuia Residency, celebrating their 20th Anniversary, where I’m volunteering the services of The Good Oil to highlight the wonderful and important work they do, and some of their very impressive alumni, which includes Emma.

Emma studied Fine Art at the University of Canterbury, before completing a Master of Fine Art at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland.

Her work is held in numerous public and private collections, including the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, The Dowse Art Museum, the University of Canterbury Art Collection, and the Chartwell Collection at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. She has also been the recipient of several art prizes and residencies, including the Olivia Bower Residency, and of course is Alumni of the McCahon House Parehuia residency.

Emma is represented by Melanie Roger Gallery in Auckland.

There are images of the works that we talk about on The Good Oil Emma Fitts Instagram Post for your reference.

In the episode, you’ll hear how she takes inspiration and direction from fashion and textiles, the potential of canvas beyond simply painting on it, the wealth of guidance she has taken from Anni Albers, how strong the research component of her practice is, and how that makes her in part an historian, and, I really liked this, she observes we’re living in a fluorescent time now with society not being so gentle, and how she plans to respond to that.

In this episode, I sit down with Richard Lewer at Suite Gallery in Tāmaki Makaurau.

This episode is part of a series I’m delivering this season for the McCahon House Parehuia Residency, celebrating their 20th Anniversary, where I’m volunteering the services of The Good Oil to highlight the wonderful and important work they do, and some of their very impressive alumni, which includes Richard.

Richard has a BFA from the Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland and and Master of Visual Arts from Victoria College of the Arts at the University of Melbourne.

His work is held in numerous public and private collections, including Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongawera, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. He is also the recipient of several art prizes and residencies, including the 2026 Archibald Portrait Prize, and of course is Alumni of the McCahon House Parehuia residency.

Richard is represented in Suite Gallery in Tāmaki Makaurau, Jan Murphy Gallery in Brisbane and Hugo Michell in Sydney.

There are images of the works that we talk about on The Good Oil Richard Lewer Instagram Post for your reference.

In the episode, you’ll hear Richard talk about how Colin McCahon text paintings spoke to him as a teenager, that he views his job as a painter is to document raw but beautiful, personal tender moments of human experience, how he’d love to be a funeral painter, the various substrates that he works with and how they excite him because of the different narrative they add to works, and why he describes painting as a bit like digging a hole.

In this episode, I visit Martin Basher at his studio in Te Whanganui-a-Tara.

This episode is part of a series I’m delivering this season for the McCahon House Parehuia Residency, celebrating their 20th Anniversary, where I’m volunteering the services of The Good Oil to highlight the wonderful and important work they do, and some of their very impressive alumni, which includes Martin.

Martin has a BFA and MFA, both from Columbia University in New York.

His work is held in numerous public and private collections, including Chartwell Collection at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki , The Agnes Gund Collection New York, the Majuda Collection also in New York, at the Pah Homestead Collection in Auckland. He has also been the recipient of several art prizes and residencies including the La Brea Residency in Los Angeles, the Susan Goodman Residency in Berlin, and, of course, the McCahon House Parehuia Residency in Tāmaki Makaurau.

Martin is represented by Starkwhite Gallery in Auckland.

There are images of the works that we talk about on The Good Oil Martin Basher Instagram Post for your reference.

You’ll hear Martin the unlikely role that itinerant agricultural work took in developing his practice, his relationship to the act of painting itself, which has seen him try to hide his hand in different ways, while also admitting he needs the very act of painting in his life, the two literary figures that have helped shape the subject matter, the multifaceted role that cardboard plays and represents in the work, his ongoing environmental concerns, which are still driving a driving force for him.