Māori (Ngāti Maniapoto) artist Leonie Ngahuia Mansbridge combines her painting and sculptural practice with her collection of found objects to explore the relationship between landscape and identity. Using her collection of gold gilt frames, themselves a symbol of power, colonisation and money, to frame her colourful and abstract paintings of landscapes, Mansbridge consciously repositions the way viewers experience her work, disrupting expectations of representative landscapes named and owned by colonisers. In her work, she centres indigenous experiences of deeply spiritual connections to the land, waters and mountains. Instead of looking upon the land, framed by a Western viewpoint, Mansbridge invites viewers to consider the deep mutual relationships Māori and other First Nations people experience with their country.  

Leonie Ngahuia Mansbridge has exhibited consistently for more than twenty years in Australia and New Zealand. In 2018, she completed a Creative Doctorate, Masters of Arts (Visual Arts), with distinction from Curtin University. She has received a number of awards, including finalist in the Joondalup community Invitation Art Awards, and has presented papers in New Zealand, Canada and Australia. Mansbridge has been invited to exhibit in the Bangladesh Biennale. 

Leonie is one of the artists in Out of Bounds (2022), curated by PICA Curator Sarah Wall and Hatched Curatorial Fellow Miranda Johnson. Her work was available for sale at PICA’s signature donor event PICA Salon Vernissage 2022 on Saturday 6 August.