Arielle Walker (Taranaki, Ngāruahine, Ngāpuhi, Pākehā) is a Tāmaki Makaurau-based contemporary artist, writer, and maker.
Her practice seeks pathways towards reciprocal belonging through the intersections and connections between land, language, and craft, weaving together tactile storytelling and ancestral narratives. Contexts that surround this include the intrinsic ties of language and land, migration across the swell and pull of the ocean, the interconnectedness of islands, pūrākau, textile traditions passed down through generations of tūpuna wāhine, tension, balance, and weight as material metaphors, roots and botanical belongings.
In 2024, she completed a PhD — Mending the Kupenga: Towards a Language of Reciprocity Between Ancestral Textile & Storytelling Practices — at AUT University, where she is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow: Textiles with Te Kura Toi a Hoahoa the School of Art and Design.
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AUT University: 2021 - 2024
Doctor of Philosophy in Visual ArtsAUT University: 2019 - 2020
Master of Visual Art (First Class)AUT University: 2012 – 2014
Bachelor of Visual Art -
Auckland Museum Institute Postgraduate Scholarship Award 2023
AUT University Vice Chancellor's Doctoral Scholarship 2021
AUT University Research Masters Scholarship 2019
Textílsetur Íslands Textile Residency, Iceland, September 2018
Invererne Summer Residency, Scotland, July 2018
Estuary Art Awards People’s Choice Award, Malcolm Smith Gallery 2017
CV
Selected Exhibitions & Installations
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Mending the Kupenga, Te Wai Ngutu Kākā, 27 June – 20 July, 2024
whatuwai, Nathan Homestead Galleries, October 11 - November 25, 2023
distance rewoven from the roots to the stem, Blue Oyster Art Project Space, April 15 - May 15, 2021
On returning to the sea (part of Matariki MVA Graduate Exhibitions), ST PAUL Street Gallery, August 4 - 8, 2020
Blanket Statement (installation), First Thursdays, Karangahape Road, August 4, 2016
Safety Blanket/Blanket Statement (installations), White Night, Auckland Arts Festival, March 12, 2015
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ngā rerenga whau (with Emily Parr, curated by Andrea Low), Kū Kahiko, Moana Fresh, December 12, 2021 – January 28, 2022
Haratua (with Emily Parr), Whānau Mārama, Commercial Bay, June 18 – July 10, 2021
Whatu Aho Rua (with Emily Parr), first shown as part of Speaking Surfaces, ST PAUL Street Gallery, October - December 2020
Whatuora (with Emily Parr), first shown as part of Speaking Surfaces, ST PAUL Street Gallery, February - December 2020
Nebula now! (Installation with Liam Mullins), Stellar Festival of Lights, July 12 - 14, 2019
Nebula now! (Site-specific installation with Liam Mullins), Taranaki Festival of Lights, December 2018 - February 2019
Parhelion (Site-specific installation with Liam Mullins), Splore Festival, February 23- 25, 2018
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PUPURITIA: Storytelling and Contemporary Textiles, Objectspace, 5 April – 1 June 2025
Waulking Song, soft shell, 16 November – 14 December 2024
Cloth, Masterworks Gallery, 22 July – 12 August, 2023
Te Au: Liquid Constituencies, Govett-Brewster Gallery, 3 December 2022 – 20 March 2023
Whānau Mārama Matariki Festival, Commercial Bay, June 18 – July 10, 2022
Whānau Mārama Matariki Festival, Commercial Bay, 18 June – 10 July, 2021
Cloth, Masterworks Gallery, 17 April – 15 May, 2021
A Very Different World, Te Tuhi, 13 February – 9 May, 2021
Whitu, Masterworks Gallery, June 20 - July 18, 2020
groundwork, the Barrel Store @ Corban Estate Arts Centre, 13 – 16 February, 2020
Fine Threads Thick Colour, Allpress Studio, 19 – 28 November, 2019
On the button, Masterworks Gallery, 25 August – 21 September, 2019
Labour of Body, Corban Estate Art Centre, 26 July – 15 September, 2019
Hear Me Roar, Weasel Gallery, 10 July – 3 August, 2019
The Cost of Living, RM Gallery, 6 December, 2018
Gluggaveður, Bílskúrs Gallerí, Blönduós, Iceland, 26 September, 2018
Empowering Women - 125 Years of Women's Suffrage in Aotearoa, Masterworks Gallery, 26 August – 15 September, 2018
Give me space, Corban Estate Art Centre, 20 July – 2 September, 2018
Estuary Art Awards, Malcolm Smith Gallery, 10 June – 15 July, 2017
Sampler, Masterworks, 29 March – 22 April, 2017
(it’s pretty open) a drawing show, DEMO, 14 – 24 April, 2016
Best of the Best, Waiheke Community Gallery, 22 January – 22 Feb, 2016
Best In Show, Objectspace, 18 April – 16 May, 2015
Selected writing publications & papers
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ngā puna waiora, ngā whatuora o Taranaki (poem), in PUHIA! Issue III, 2025
river poems (chapbook), in AUP New Poets 9 (AUP, 2023)
kawakawa (poem fragment from rongoā), in Remember Me: Poems to Learn by Heart from Aotearoa New Zealand, edited by Anne Kennedy (AUP, 2023)
Two readings for The Poetry Shelf Cafe readings: 8 poets celebrate National Poetry Day, 2023
dream futures from a plant placed beneath your tongue (poem), in No Other Place to Stand - An Anthology of Climate Change Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand (AUP, 2022)
here are all the ways the story is the same (poem), in Sweet Mammalian Issue 8, 2021 and Te Awa o Kupu, edited by Vaughn Rapatahana and Kiri Pirihana-Wong (Penguin Random House, 2023)
the imagery of trees and trust with your skin (poems), in Turbine | Kapohau, 2020
Whatu Aho Rua (collaborative filmpoem with Emily Parr), Lieu Journal, December 2020
dream futures from a plant placed beneath your tongue and skin (poems), Oscen: MYTHS, November 2020
as whenua holds/is held | a response to Ashleigh Taupaki Matā (lyric essay), RM Gallery, October 2020
Untangling the aho (lyric essay), Tupuranga Journal Issue Lua: A Whole New World, September 2020
a poem is a fluid thing all wrapped up in fish skin (poem), Stasis Journal Issue One, June 2020
whatuora, (in conversation with Emily Parr), Kei Te Pai Journal, May 2020
Te pūrākau o Taranaki and all rivers (poems), Tupuranga Journal Issue Tahi, May 2020
The Single Object at Home: Thread Box (article), Objectspace Journal, April 2020
River Maps and Te pūrākau o Taranaki (reading), LOUNGE #68, June 2019
A tale of sheep and golden light (article),Art News New Zealand, 2019
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He Tauira, Nga Tauira: Learning from our Grandmothers’ collections (conference contribution), CTANZ Symposium 2025: Fascination, Ōtepoti, May 2025
Whatu: to see, to weave; also stone (presentation), Vā Kōrero with Nālani Wilson Hokowhitu and Arielle Walker, Vā Moana – Pacific Spaces, October 2023
To see, to weave; also stone, a stone like an anchor (conference contribution), Vā Hine session, ASAO Kona, February 2023Untangling threads: forming reparative relationships in the spaces between our ancestral stories and textile crafts (conference contribution) Old Stories, New Narratives symposium, Applied Arts Scotland, Edinburgh College of Art, MSVU Art Gallery, The Dr Sandra Alfoldy Craft Institute, NSCAD, September 2021
Kōrerorero (Artist talk and making space), Blue Oyster Art Project Space, May, 2021
The Memory of Water (conference contribution with Emily Parr), Global Asia/Pacific Art Exchange Aotearoa: Ngā Tai o te Ao: Global Tides, June 24, 2020
Photographic media in installational practice (artist talk), ASATA Conference, July 1, 2019
Bright Ideas: #1 Arielle Walker and Ramon Robertson (artist talk), Malcolm Smith Gallery, June 21, 2017
The Hand-Maker’s Mill Makerspace (co-run with Winnie Edgar-Booty), Onehunga Creative Arts Day, March 4, 2017
Experimental Bakery Makerspace (co-run with Grace McArthur), Auckland Arts Festival, March 12, 2016
Meet the Makers - Best In Show 2015 (artist talk), Objectspace, May 9, 2015