Anya Sinclair

B. 1978

Jungle juice, 2020, acrylic on canvas, 1250 x 1600 mm $4800

Deep creek 2024, acrylic on canvas, 1200 x 900 mm $4800

Pineapple fritter 39, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 900 x 770 mm $420

Artist Biography

Anya Sinclair was born in 1978, in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. She studied painting at Elam School of Fine Arts, before travelling and eventually relocating to Dunedin, where she completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Dunedin School of Art. Anya lives in Ōtepoti Dunedin with her husband, son, and greyhound.

Anya is painter of spectral landscapes and ephemeral flora. Her practice has largely been dedicated to naturalistic landscapes, complete with illusionistic depth. With colour palettes awash with deep greens, purples, and blues, and environments lacking any human figures, Anya creates slightly fantastical landscapes that feel both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. Frames of foliage around the edge of paintings place the viewer in the foreground, and draw them into the work – where Anya hopes to impart a connection and concern for nature, and share a sense of collective guilt for what people are doing to the earth. In response to the twin challenges of raising a young child within the constraints of Covid-19 lockdowns, Anya developed a new practice she calls Fast Flowers – instinctive, impulsive, single-session works.

Anya has exhibited regularly throughout New Zealand since graduating in 2009. Her first exhibition at Bowen Galleries was in 2013, with The Door in the Wall. In 2022, Pineapple Fritter featured 100 flower paintings on loose canvas, either piled high on a table in the centre room, or strewn across the gallery floor, creating a tactile experience based primarily around the act of rummaging. Her work has also featured in Landfall arts and literary journal.

www.anyasinclair.com

Solo Exhibitions

Group Exhibitions