Staff
Tutors
Antoinette Ratcliffe
Antoinette completed her Master of Arts in 2011 where she majored in sculpture and installation. She has exhibited in galleries all over New Zealand including The Pah Homestead and Studio One, and has also given talks about her practice at the Auckland Art Gallery and Pecha Kucha. Over the past few years, Antoinette’s practice has grown to include taxidermy and butterfly setting. All of her taxidermy specimens are ethically sourced, and usually come with a story as to how they were found.
Siobhan Ridgley
Siobhan Ridgley is an embroidery and textile artist. Lunatype, the embroidery project of Ridgley has popped up over Auckland in the form of exhibitions, curatorship and workshops within Monster Valley Gallery via “Broidery Bitches”, public workshops in Final_final and Studio One Toi Tū. The continuous motion of embroidery can help us to slow down in our busy lives while still feeling productive, functioning as both a form of stress relief and creative expression. Ridgely hopes to help people to find hobbies involving embroidery that work as healthy coping mechanisms for mental illness.
Alvin Xiong
Alvin Xiong is a multi-disciplinary artist specifying in integrating painting techniques into different mediums to achieve a new expression. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in oil painting from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in China and he completed his Master of Fine Arts degree at Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Xiong was the finalist in several New Zealand art awards. His works have been exhibited nationally and internationally. His book was published in Heidelberg Germany in 2011. As an independent curator, he focuses on curating exhibition between New Zealand and China.
Ekarasa Doblanovic
Ekarasa Doblanovic graduated in 2014 with Master Degree (First Degree Honours) in Visual Arts from AUT Auckland. Her creative practice encompasses painting and installation with collaborative and participatory projects, working across New Zealand and Australia as well as internationally for the past decade. Doblanovic's works embody a strong sense of materiality. She uses pure pigments and fabricates her own colours to activate a consideration of colour in its truest state as the primary voice of her works, above form and composition. Additionally, her work investigates the collaborative and participatory where notions of ecology, impermanence and human interactions are explored with the aim to create an empathetic interaction between people, art and nature.
Hollie Ryan
Hollie is a Craft Artist and Jewellery Maker. She incorporates many techniques into her design practice including beading, lace crochet, leather work, embroidery, polymer clay, illustration and woodworking. She graduated Law in 2011 but didn’t find her true calling until she launched her jewellery line Hark Handmade in 2017 and went on to show her designs at New Zealand Fashion Week the following year. She gets complete joy from creating beautiful things by hand and is delighted to share that feeling with others through tutoring.
Eleshea D’Souza
Eleshea D'Souza is a passionate New Zealand artist who has been painting ever since she could hold a brush. She has commissioned over 50 paintings and specialises in oils and acrylics. Eleshea runs an art entertainment business in Auckland, Art In Bloom Academy (www.artinbloom.co.nz). Eleshea joins Studio One Toi Tu as a tutor of poured acrylic and resin art.
Maha Tomo
Ko Waikato me Ngai Tahu Whanui me Ngati Kauwhata me Rangitane oku iwi. Maha Tomo completed a Bachelor of Creative Arts at Manukau Institute of Technology under the guidance of many talented and amazing tutors who influenced and informed his practice. Maha is the lead Facilitator at Toi Manawa Arts. He enjoys Mahi toi (creating art) and works predominantly with Pounamu and bone. “I believe life is an emergence not an emergency and I enjoy being in creative spaces where we can all connect and have fun, Mauri ora!”
Ingrid van Heusden
Ingrid van Heusden is a bespoke jeweller based in Auckland. Ingrid creates unique pieces that are inspired by nature and her surroundings. All her pieces are created with an interest in upcycling and a consciousness of sustainability. Ingrid has a Bachelor of Design and Visual Arts majoring in Contemporary Craft, and her work has been in a number of exhibitions, shows and galleries in Australasia. Ingrid has her bench at Whau Studios, a contemporary jewellery collective and jewellery school in Pt Chevalier.
Valerie Ong
Valerie is a recent graduate with a Fine Arts(hons) degree at Elam School of Fine Arts, with a practice focused on the difficulties on immigration, and the challenge of preserving a cultural identity in a contemporary multi-cultural society. Since graduating, she has worked in various creative institutions in Auckland, including Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Pah Homestead and Nathan Homestead. She joins the Studio One Toi Tū as a ceramic technician for our drop-in sessions.
Gemma Stewart
Gemma has been a passionate cross stitch hobbyist for over six years, exhibiting in Auckland Arts Week and at Studio One Toi Tu as well as regularly completing commission pieces for friends and family. For the last six years Gemmas main mahi has been in careers education, firstly as Gateway Broker for a high school in Wellington and more recently as a public servant at CareersNZ. Gemma has now entered what she describes as an "artistic sabbatical", developing traction in her hobby of cross stitch and beginning to exhibit, sell and share her passion for cross-stitch with the community.
Jarad Bryant
Auckland-based multi media artist Jarad Bryant graduated with a printmaking BFA in 1992 and has exhibited widely, been a finalist in numerous art competitions and is represented in several New Zealand art collections. Jarad has been part of the Studio One community for nearly two decades, sharing his wide-ranging knowledge about art theory, practices and technique. He enjoys making learning accessible and helping people to recognise and utilise their creative and expressive potential.
Kairava Gullatz
Kairava Gullatz studied ceramic design in Germany, from where she emigrated to New Zealand in 1997. Kairava has worked as a studio potter since and for the past 12 years has been tutoring adults and children in ceramic arts at facilities across Auckland. Her ever popular ceramics courses for children are a central part of the youth programme and typically book early, parents are advised to contacts us when our new What's On term programmes are released.
Beth Serjeant
Beth Serjeant’s early experience in graphic design led her to examine the interaction and integration of text and imagery through print and letterpress in her art practice. Beth has worked with established New Zealand writers producing images in response to their poetry and has exhibited nationally and internationally. Beth has taught extensively and her popular courses on bookbinding and printing have been a part of the creative community at 1 Ponsonby Road for many years.
Tanja Nola
Tanja Nola graduated with a MFA from Elam in 2003. Tanja’s teaching, which started in 1990, has spanned community groups and several tertiary institutions. “It is a privilege to teach and work with people and in particular young art makers. Over the years I have enjoyed finding new ways to help students to tap into their innate knowledge and to become confident in who they are and what they can do.”
Han Nae Kim
Han Nae is a Korean-born visual artist who has been exhibiting in NZ and Australia since 2002. Han completed a Master of Fine Arts with First Class Honours at the Victorian College of Arts in Melbourne in 2012. During her VCA years Han Nae was awarded prestigious accolades and was invited to deliver a drawing workshop for students across multiple visual art disciplines in the school. She has conducted classes and workshops as a visiting artist at Guangxi Art College, China. Han’s works have been purchased into a number of fine collections including the Wallace Arts Trust, Saachi & Saachi, VCA and the Athenaeum Club.