artist profile
Fiona Pardington
born
1961
lives and works
Devonport, New Zealand
education
BFA, Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland University, New Zealand, 1984
MFA, Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland University, New Zealand, 2003
about the artist
Equipped with a virtuosity in the formal techniques of analogue as well as digital photography, Fiona Pardington deftly crafts her own catalogue of still-life portraiture. Her subjects range from Maori greenstone pendants to now-extinct avian species, from South Pacific life casts to ordinary silk flowers. Through her lens, these inanimate objects undergo a resurrection—an allegorical dialogue traces its path through lost histories, forgotten memories, and nameless lives. Pardington has been honored with an impressive litany of accolades, which include the Moët & Chandon Fellowship, the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship, and the Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award, among others. She has held solo shows throughout New Zealand, and has participated in group museum exhibitions held at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki in Auckland, the Christchurch Art Gallery in Christchurch, and the City Gallery Wellington in Wellington, New Zealand; as well as the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, Australia, and the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France.