Gallery 4

olive bly - beached in the whale belly

2 - 13 September 2026

please note last day of exhibition ends on 13 September at 3pm

Opening night

4 September | 6 - 8 pm

Gallery Hours:
Wednesday – Sunday: 10 am – 5 pm

ARTIST  STATEMENT 

olive’s visual work is always curious & enthusiastic about form & colour. She sees her works as diagrams: diagrams which point primarily to multiplicity of intention and interpretation. Questioning our understanding of strict dichotomies, her works set out to walk tightropes of meaning, revelling in drawing connections between things which are seemingly contradictory. This approach is intimately connected to real-world dynamics: abstraction is a response to the concrete, and vice versa. By combining abstract forms with poetic, diagrammatic labels, her paintings emphasise the inseparability of dream-logic and waking life.

She is particularly interested in using recycled, found, & secondhand materials to explore modes of creation which promote more sustainable methods. In connection with direct action and community organising, she aims for her art to assist in imagining new futures which expand the horizons of the (im)possible. The works in this collection are painted on secondhand boards and canvases, to which layers of recycled newspaper, gesso, oil paint, pastel, graphite, coloured pencil, ink, solvent, and linseed oil were applied.

ARTIST  BIOGRAPHY

olive bly (Tangata Tiriti, Pākehā) is an outer-disciplinary artist of european descent from Aotearoa (New Zealand), currently based in Naarm (Melbourne, so-called Australia). Her work traverses a variety of mediums, finding synaesthetic links between all kinds of reference points. She adopts playful creative philosophies which blend the naive with the theoretic, underpinned by thematic cyclicality. 

Her visual art has recently been exhibited by several galleries in both Aotearoa and Naarm (including Meanwhile, Uindō95, & Red Gallery). In July 2026 she was a finalist in the fortyfivedownstairs Emerging Artist Award. Her poetry has been published by various literary magazines, including takahē, Hungercradle, & bad apple. Her debut poetry collection, chrysalis (d[i̶]s)section, was published in August 2025 with 5ever books.

In 2025, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (majoring in Philosophy) from Te Herenga Waka. Drawing on her backgrounds in music, philosophy, painting, and poetry, she is always improvising across fields.

Artist CV

olive bly (Tangata Tiriti, Pākehā) is an outer-disciplinary artist of european descent from Aotearoa (New Zealand), currently based in Naarm (Melbourne, so-called Australia). Her work traverses a variety of mediums (painting, poetry, music, et cetera), finding synaesthetic links between all kinds of reference points. She adopts playful creative philosophies which blend the naive with the theoretic, underpinned by thematic cyclicality.

Education:

2022-25 Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy

Selected Exhibitions:

2026 Group Exhibition, fortyfivedownstairs Emerging Artist Award 2026 (Finalist)

(fortyfivedownstairs, 14-24 July 2026)

2025 Solo Exhibition, many wiggly homunculi

(Uindō95 Gallery, 1-14 August 2025)

Group Exhibition, "We know what art is: it's paintings of horses!"

(MEANWHILE Gallery, April 2025)

Solo Exhibition, don’t be afraid (the clown's afraid too)

(MEANWHILE Gallery, 21-30 March 2025)

Selected Publications:

2026 of iiiiiii (Poem)

(takahē, Issue 117) https://www.takahe.org.nz/of-iiiiiii/

invasion (Poem)

(Yellow Lamp, Issue 1) https://yellowlamp.nz/olive-bly-invasion

2025 chrysalis (d[i]s)section ̶ (Full-length poetry collection)

(5ever books, August 2025)