Gillian Appleby is an artist who predominantly works with the figure in oil. Appleby uses everyday media and photography as the starting point in her works, but often the paint takes over and this means that the material dictates the final work. Over the painting and sketching process, Appleby’s works blur fiction and reality as she seeks to create tensions between illustrative and material investigations around the figure.

Appleby lived in the UK where she studied in London at the now Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design. Appleby holds a Bachelor of Art and Design from the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT). Gillian currently lives and works in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland but still maintains strong connections to the Hawke’s Bay. She has exhibited nationally in Napier, Hastings and Auckland, and her work has exhibited several times in the Molly Morpeth Canaday Awards (2015, 2017, 2019).

Appleby currently exhibits with Tennyson Gallery in Napier and has a studio at Corbans Art Estate in Auckland.

www.gillianapplebyart.com