Zina Swanson

Zina Swanson is a New Zealand artist. Her works are held in the Christchurch Art Gallery, University of Canterbury and Hocken Collections.
Swanson was born in Christchurch in 1981. She graduated from the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts with a BFA in 2003. After losing her studio and most of her early art production in the Christchurch earthquakes she lived in Auckland briefly before arriving in Dunedin in 2013 to take up her tenure as the University of Otago's Frances Hodgkins Fellow. By 2020 she was based in Christchurch again, living with artist partner James Oram and working part-time at the University of Canterbury.
Swanson's work investigates the relationships between humans and the natural world.

Awards and Residencies

2018 Inaugural recipient of the Grace Butler Art Award at Ara
2014 Apexart New York Inbound Resident - recommended by Justin Paton
2013 Frances Hodgkins Fellow
2004 The CoCA/Anthony Harper Award for Contemporary Art

Exhibitions

Any Plant Thought of Too Much Will Not Thrive, Sumer, Tauranga
Timely Additions, Eastern Southland Gallery, Gore
For Luck, Dunedin Public Art Gallery
No Need for Water: Zina Swanson, Hocken Library
Ready to Roll, City Gallery Wellington