Bloom explores cycles of nature and the vibrant energy of creation through painting, sculpture, photography, and mixed media.

Emphasising the patterns and rhythms of efflorescence, Aiko Robinson, Darryn George and Michael McHugh traverse the intricate details and sensuality of floral abundance. Ceramist Mark Mitchell explores visual harmonies and the balance of structure and form through the unique use of repeated pattern, painterly concerns and surface properties, inside and out.

Paul Dibble’s gold leaf plated Kowhai flowers glow with a luminous richness, acute symbolism, and cultural significance.

With their playful approach to botanical traditions, Dick Frizzell and Karl Maughan offer reinterpretations of still life and landscape that heighten the tension between utopian perfection and its uncanny edge, where luminous colours and exaggerated forms blur the line between the familiar and the surreal, inviting viewers to question the idealized beauty of nature.

Sarah Smutts-Kennedy and Molly Timmins build intuitive responses to emotional and physical terrains, translating fleeting impressions into layered, sensitive compositions that blur the boundaries between internal experience and external landscapes.

The noteworthy sculptural works of Elizabeth Thompson and Neil Dawson emphasise the mathematical repetitions of nature, while revealing the formal structure of plants and flowers, where what is real is shown to be both strange and beautiful.

Using high definition photography to capture in hyper-real detail the delicacy of New Zealand flora, Yuki Kihara’s extended Aotea’ula series references traditional Sāmoan floral wreaths to memorialise the history of Pacific colonisation.

Elizabeth Thomson, Life and Everything - Love from Horoeka (2025) and Life and Everything VI (2015) appear courtesy of The Central Art Gallery, Christchurch.