Artists

Born in 1963, Wairarapa artist Kirsty Gardiner is a full time ceramic and textile artist.  

Kirsty’s ceramic sculptures are influenced by her childhood, natural history, and the collections with which she came into contact while working as a gallery technician at Aratoi Museum of Art and History in Masterton.

A regular exhibitor since 1997, Kirsty’s "Portmanteau: A Cabinet of Curiosities" was shown in 2012 at Aratoi, and in 2013 at Palmerston North’s Te Manawa Museum of Art, Science and History. In 2016, an installation of Kirsty's porcelain huia skins was exhibited as part of Shapeshifter (curated by The Dowse in Lower Hutt). In 2019 Kirsty held solo exhibitions at Aratoi, Pataka in Porirua and Mahara Gallery in Waikenae, and in 2023 Kirsty mounted an exhibition "Alice Vallance Hosking and Kirsty Gardiner: Conversations Through Time" at Aratoi.

In 2013 and 2014 Kirsty was a finalist in both the James Wallace Art Awards and the prestigious Portage Ceramic Awards. Kirsty won the premier award at the Portage in 2010, a merit award in 2011, and received an honorable mention in 2016.

In 2013 Kirsty took out the premier award at the Wairarapa Art Review, and in 2015 the artist secured the Excellence Award in the New Zealand Society of Potters (NZSP) Elements exhibition. Kirsty went on to receive the 2017 NZSP non-functional award at the national exhibition at the Quartz Museum in Whanganui.

In 2023 Kirsty received the "People's Choice Award" at the 2022-2023 Wellington Regional Arts Review.