Denise Kum
Denise Kum is a New Zealand artist. Her works are held in the collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and the University of Auckland art collection.
Biography
Kum was born in Auckland in 1968. She gained a BFA from the Elam School of Fine Arts in 1992. In the same year, Kum was a founding member of Teststrip, an artist-run gallery for contemporary and experimental art.Teststrip, Auckland's first artist-run gallery, was founded by Lucy MacDonald, Merylyn Tweedie, Giovanni Intra, Daniel Malone, Judy Darragh, Gail Haffern, Kirsty Cameron and Kum. The space was initially set up to provide the founding artists with a venue for showing their work. Teststrip received a small grant from Creative New Zealand in 1995, which enabled the move to a new space on Karangahape Rd and employment of a paid administrator. Teststrip began connecting with networks of similar galleries overseas, and their international advisory board included Lilian Budd, Kathy Temin, Mikala Dwyer and Harmony Korine. The decision was made to close Teststrip in 1998 resulted from a desire to finish "cleanly and strongly, rather than peter out or recruit." Teststrips micrograph publishing project continued working after the gallery closed.
Kum is known for her work with experimental home-made plastics, and her works with consumable materials such as beeswax, seaweed and food, often allowed to decay and breakdown.