"My work comes from the subconscious: it tells me what to do." - Tanya Ashken, 2008

Best known for her large water sculpture "Albatross" beside the lagoon in Frank Kitts Park, Wellington sculptor Tanya Ashken also has her work on permanent display at Victoria University, Circa Theatre and the Wellington College of Education.

Her large concrete sculpture outside Pahiatua is a memorial to the Polish child refugees who lived there during World War Two. Smaller works in silver are held in churches around New Zealand and the UK.

Some of Ashken's sculptures took up to 30 years to complete, while others are less than a year old. They began as carvings in marble or wood which have been cast in metal by foundries in Auckland and Wellington.

Ashken trained as a sculptor and silversmith in London and Paris and came to New Zealand with her husband, John Drawbridge, in the early 60s. They have lived in Island Bay ever since.

"Some of the sculptures reflect my anger at what humanity does to other creatures, such as the black-backed gulls I see from my window facing Island Bay. A few works are completely abstract and these are the most difficult of all to produce."


………………………………………………
Born 1939 London, England
Emigrated to New Zealand 1963
………………………………………………


EDUCATION & NOTABLE DATES
………………………………………
1967
Received Frances Hodgkins Fellowship, Otago University, Dunedin, New Zealand

1961-62
Studied sculpture at Camberwell Art School, London, England

1960-61
Studied sculpture in Paris, France

1957-60
Studied silversmithing at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London, England

1952
Awarded own silversmith’s Hallmark

1946-57
Bedales School, Hampshire, England


EXHIBITIONS (SELECTED)
…………………………………
2011-2012
Laisee-10 Years of Koru Contemporary Art in Hong Kong, Koru Contemporary Art, Hong Kong

2007
Goddesses, Gods, Sea and Earth, Koru Contemporary Art, Hong Kong

2006
South Coast Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand

2003
Solo Show, Judith Anderson Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Solo Show, Idiom Studio Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand

1999
Solo Show, Judith Anderson Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Crossroads Bookshop Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand

1998
Studio 4 Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand

1995
Family Exhibition (with Tony and Cameron), Turnbull House, Wellington, New Zealand

1990
Brooker Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand

1972
Solo Show, Bett Duncan Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand

1966
New Vision gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Le Verre, International Exhibition of Contemporary Glass, Rouen

1963
Redfern Gallery and New Vision Centre Gallery, London, England


SCULPTURE IN PUBLIC PLACES
………………………………………
1997
'Waiting for Gaia’ 1/6, Bronze, Wakefield hospital, Wellington

1996
'Treaty of Waitangi Sculpture’, Bronze & Serpentine, commissioned by Lord Cooke of Thorndon for the Court of Appeal. 2nd & 3rd casts presented to Lord Woolf and Lord Goff in the United Kingdom

1995
'Whale Form II’ 3/6, Bronze, Circa Theatre, Wellington, New Zealand
'MantaBird’ 1/6, Bronze, Circa Theatre, Wellington, New Zealand

1995
'Rock of Ages’, Oamaru Stone, Efil Doog Rhododendron Garden, near Wellington, New Zealand
'Whale Form II’ 2/6, Bronze, Marsden Collegiate School, Wellington, New Zealand

1994
'Whale Form II’ 1/6, Bronze, Otago University, Dunedin, New Zealand

1992
'Celene’, Bronze, Rutherford Art Trust, New Zealand

1986
'Albatross’, 3 piece Ferro-cement Water Sculpture, Frank Kitts Park, Wellington, New Zealand
Trophy for the Royal Australasian College of Neurosurgeons, Silver, Bronze, Greenstone & Wood

1980
'Apollo’, White Marble, Wairarapa Arts Centre, New Zealand

1975
'Monolith’, Concrete, Memorial for Polish Children Refugees, Paihiatua, New Zealand

1974
'Seabird IV’, Bronze, Beaglehole Memorial, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand
Seabird V’, Bronze, New Zealand Chancery, Canberra, Australia

1973
'Kotuku’, Second Casting, Bronze, Dowse Art Gallery, Lower Hutt, New Zealand

1972
'Bronze Torso’ 2/9, Te Papa Museum, Wellington, New Zealand

1970
'Sea Creatures’, Aluminium Mobile, Wellington College of Education, New Zealand

1969
'Head’, Bronze, Victoria University, New Zealand
'Kotuku’, Bronze, Dunedin Municipal Building, New Zealand

1968
'Two Standing Forms’, Bronze, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand
'Bronze Torso’ 1/9, Otago University, Dunedin, New Zealand


NOTABLE PRIVATE COMMISSION
………………………………………
2004
'Lament of the Albatross’, cast in White Marble Dust, commissioned by Ian Fraser & Suzanne Snively, Wellington, New Zealand


CHURCH SILVER
……………………
2007
Chalice, St. Peters Church, Wellington, New Zealand

1990
Candleholder, Home of Compassion Chapel, Island Bay, Wellington, New Zeakand
Baptismal Bowl, Matawhero Church, Gisborne, New Zealand

1983
Cross, Candlesticks & Snuffer, Kings School Chapel, Auckland, New Zealand

1972
Warden’s Wand, St. Michael’s Church, Kelburn, Wellington, New Zealand

1970
Alms Dish, St. Mary’s Church, Timaru, New Zealand

1968
Pastoral Staff for the Bishop of Nelson, New Zealand

1962
Bronze & Silver Cross, All Saints Church, Steep (near Petersfield), Hampshire, England

1959
Crucifix, Addiscombe, Croydon, London, England

OTHER PUBLIC COMMISSIONS
……………………………………
1990
'Women in Science’ Medallion, Zonta Club of Wellington, New Zealand

1987
Chain of Office for the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioner

1970
Pendant for Princess Anne, presented by the New Zealand Arts Council

1970
Bishop of Dunedin’s Ring and Pectoral Cross, New Zealand