Kate MacKenzie

Kate MacKenzie is a treasure of the Hawke's Bay art scene. Not only did she win the Supreme Award at World of Wearable Art in 2014 for her work Poly Nation but she has been a two-time finalist in the New Zealand Adam Portraiture Awards. Kate says her surrealist paintings, which often provoke a double take from viewers, are her way of incorporating a multitude of ideas and motifs in a single canvas. The title of her 2020 exhibition, Mayday for Cicadas, came after she noticed she had not heard the summer cicadas. “I worry the world is doing too little about the threat of climate change, and instead, collectively, we are disengaging from nature — becoming distracted by gadgetry. Human-made artifice is drowning out the summertime thrum of insects like cicadas.” Kate's Studio is open on appointment. 55 Havelock Road, Havelock North. (06) 877 4260, katemackenzie.co.nz