Born in Aotearoa (New Zealand), Polynesian artist Tania Landers paints and collages as a way of carrying stories forward. Rooted in the rhythms of the Pacific, her practice explores memory, identity, and the way stories travel through generations. Through vibrant layers of color, texture and found fragments, Landers creates visual narratives that honor both tradition and transformation. Her art carries the pulse of heritage while embracing the openness of contemporary expression.

“My work begins where memory, texture and color collide. I paint with acrylics and weave fragments of collage, building layered surfaces that suggest both presence and erasure.

I’m drawn to tension between chaos and order, letting intuition guide the brush, then interrupting it with scraps of paper, marks, or texture that resist perfection. The act of layering is my way of capturing time itself: how experiences accumulate, overlap, and leave traces beneath the surface.

Ultimately, my seeks to evoke feeling before explanation-inviting the viewer to step closer, to notice the details, and perhaps find their own reflection in the fragments.”

-Tania Landers