Claudia Jowitt | Vaga: Where the Wind Falls | Hastings Art Gallery
Claudia Jowitt has a new exhibition 'Vaga: Where the Wind Falls' at the Hastings Art Gallery Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga from 5 December 2026 - 24 April 2027.
Claudia Jowitt is an artist of iTaukei (Indigenous Fijian) and Pākehā heritage. Vaga / Where the wind fills brings Jowitt’s established painting practice into dialogue with textiles, a new thread in her making. These works draw on the natural environment and material cultures of Fiji that have long informed her practice.
Jowitt embraces and amplifies aesthetics that art history has often marginalised as “feminine”, “craft-based” or “decorative” excess. Soft pastel colours are layered one upon another, and paint is built up in thick, textured forms, squeezed through piping bags and applied with kitchen tools like icing on a cake. Fabric, shells, coral, and Fijian materials such as masi (bark cloth) and vau (hibiscus fibre) evoke the lush abundance of Fiji and make direct reference to the vanua (land) she connects to. Jowitt explores the material qualities and sculptural possibilities of painting across a range of forms. Her works include thickly layered paintings, an installation of small paintings on shells scattered like a constellation, and three-dimensional works, including enlarged fibreglass casts of squeezed paint and paintings cast in bronze.
At the heart of the exhibition is Tevu ni ibe, a floor mat-inspired work. It draws on the Fijian tradition of stacking and layering woven mats and masi for cultural ceremonies, echoed in Jowitt’s own layering of paint and materials. It also references a newer form of everyday dua mat in Fiji, made from fabric offcuts. A mat can mark a threshold between inside and outside, while welcoming people to gather and connect. This in-between position reflects Jowitt’s own interest in the thresholds between painting and sculpture, craft and fine art, as well as her experience of navigating cultural identity, diaspora, and belonging in the South Pacific.
For further information about the exhibition:
https://www.hastingscityartgallery.co.nz/exhibitions/exhibitions/article/687/claudia-jowitt-vaga-where-the-wind-fills
To enquire about works by Claudia Jowitt: info@melanierogergallery.com
