Lena McKillop

Award-Winning Contemporary Artist

Based in the coastal beauty of Whangamatā, Lena is a contemporary artist whose work navigates the delicate boundary between physical reality and emotional memory.

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The Art of Solitude: Painting

At the heart of Lena’s practice is a deep exploration of the aesthetic power of solitude. Her paintings serve as a primary vehicle for this inquiry, translating complex emotional landscapes into visual form. By stripping away the noise of the modern world, her canvases invite viewers into a contemplative space - one that challenges the traditional perception of being "alone" and replaces it with a rich, albeit ambiguous, sense of peace.

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Capturing Stillness: Pinhole Photography

Lena’s photographic work serves as a technical and atmospheric companion to her paintings. Utilising a handmade cardboard-box camera and traditional darkroom development, she embraces the "slow art" of pinhole photography to capture the timeless essence of Whangamatā’s coastline.

Her process is defined by:

• The Purified Scene: Long exposures of 6-10 seconds blur movement and remove extraneous detail.

• The Solitary Subject: Her images focus primarily on a lone, young female subject, creating a central anchor amidst an "uncanny stillness."

• The Dream State: By freezing time and revealing its passage simultaneously, her photography transforms a single moment into something resembling a dream or a fading memory.
   

A Unified Vision

Whether working with a brush or a lensless camera, Lena’s goal remains the same: to elicit a deeply personal response from the viewer. Her award-winning portfolio is a testament to the haunting beauty found in quiet moments, evoking a spectrum of emotions that linger long after the initial encounter.