Lynette Fisher’s art practice encompasses painting, printmaking, drawing and assemblage, which she regularly exhibits in solo and group shows throughout New Zealand.
Lynette’s work investigates themes of adoption, guardianship and ownership - appropriating existing imagery and re-placing it in awkward and re-imagined worlds. While an underlying sense of nostalgia usually permeates her work, it is disrupted by tensions around how the past and the present traverse space, time and identity.
Lynette graduated from Toi Ohomai in 2017 with a Bachelor of Creative Industries, and since 2022 has been the coordinator of the Molly Morpeth Canaday Award. Her work is held in public and private collections. Lynette was born in Auckland and lives and works in Te Puna, Tauranga.
Studio visits by appointment.
Awards / Selections
2024 Tauranga Soc. Artists Supreme Award - Runner Up
2023 Parkin Drawing Prize, NZ Academy of Fine Art, Wellington - Finalist
2020 Venetta Miles Art Award, - Finalist, TAG
2019 Rotorua Museum Art Award - Merit award
2018 Venetta Miles Art Award, TAG - Ethel McMillan Award
2017 First Impressions III Print Award, Mairangi Bay Arts Centre Auckland - Finalist
2017 Parkin Drawing Prize, NZ Academy of Fine Arts, Wellington - Finalist
2017 Rotorua Museum Art Award - Finalist
2017 Toi Ohomai, Tauranga - Woman’s Graduate prize
2015 Toi Ohomai - First in Graphic Design
2013 Molly Morpeth Canaday Award, Te Kõputu a te Whanga a Toi, Whakatāne - Finalist
2010 Venetta Miles Art Award, TAG - Emerging Artist Award
2002 Adam Portrait Award, New Zealand Portrait Gallery, Wellington - Finalist
Collections
2019 Rotorua Museum permanent collection ‘Me Too (2019)’
Work held in numerous private collections
Scholarships
2017 The Incubator Creative Hub, Tauranga - Summer Research Scholarship
2016 Tauranga Art Gallery Toi Tauranga - Summer Research Scholarship
2014 Toi Ohomai - Adult Study Scholarship
Selected exhibitions
2024 SUSS 3 (Darcell Apelu, Donna Dinsdale, Lynette Fisher, Nicol Sanders-O'Shea, Anne Shirley) Unitec, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
2024 SUSS 2 (Darcell Apelu, Donna Dinsdale, Heidi Douglas, Lynette Fisher, Nicol Sanders-O'Shea, Anne Shirley) Te Awa o Mauao Gallery, Toi Ohomai, Windemere
2024 Pūmanawa | Intuitio Artistic Passport (Flowers ngā putiputi art collective) Grey Gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
2024 the flower gives its fragrance even to the hand which crushes it - (Alice Alva, Ekaterina Dimieva, Lynette Fisher, Wesley John Fourie, Claudia Kogachi, Tia Ranginui), NewLands Gallery, Õtepoti Dunedin.
2024 Ladies a Plate (Lynette Fisher , Justine Hawksworth), Quirky Fow, Hāwera.
2023 Parkin Drawing Prize Finalist's Exhibition, NZ Academy of Fine Arts, Wellington.
2023 Craigs Aspiring Art Prize Finalist, Wanaka
2023 Fancy - (Lynette Fisher, Nicol Sanders O’Shea, Anne Shirley, Tracy Stamatacos), Fos Gallery, Tauranga.
2023 Wild Creatures (Lynette Fisher, Dani Henke, Becky Popham) Squarespace Main Gallery, New Plymouth.
2023 Full Circle - 12 years of the Miles, Tauranga Art Gallery Toi Tauranga (TAG)
2022 Perspectives Te tai ao (Flowers ngā putiputi art collective) Malcolm Smith Gallery, Uxbridge Arts Centre, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
2022 Home & Garden (Paul Darragh, Lynette Fisher, Jacquelyn Greenbank, John Roy) presented by Supercut Projects, Tauranga.
2022 LIMB (Lynette Fisher, Dani Henke, Becky Popham) SPACE Gallery, Whanganui.
2022 SUSS (Darcell Apelu, Donna Dinsdale, Heidi Douglas, Lynette Fisher, Nicol Sanders-O'Shea, Anne Shirley) Wallace Gallery, Morrinsville.
2022 Hand Me Down (Lynette Fisher, Nicol Sanders O’Shea, Anne Shirley), The Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts, Waikato University, Hamilton.
2021 Freckle (Lynette Fisher, Nicol Sanders O’Shea, Anne Shirley), Te Puna Gallery, Tauranga
2020 Venetta Miles Art Award, Finalitst's exhibition,TAG, Tauranga.
2020 Go home, Stay home (Solo), The Incubator Gallery, Tauranga.
2020 Social Print (NZ Print Council), Lysaght Watt Gallery, South Taranaki.
2019 Rotorua Museum Art Award Finalists Exhibition, Rotorua Museum, Rotorua.
2018 La Petit Mort, Wallace Gallery, Morrinsville.
2018 IAMWHATIPLAY (Solo), The Incubator Gallery, Tauranga.
2018 Venetta Miles Art Award Finalist's Exhibition, TAG, Tauranga.
2018 Whakaranu (Mix), Toi Ohomai Staff exhibition, Zeus Gallery, Tauranga.
2018 All In 3, Wallace Gallery, Morrinsville.
2018 Antimatter 18, The People’s Gallery - toi ka rere, Tauranga.
2017 First Impressions III Print Awards Finalist's Exhibition, Mairangi Bay Arts Centre, Auckland.
2017 Parkin Drawing Prize Finalist's Exhibition, NZ Academy of Fine Arts, Wellington.
2017 Rotorua Museum Art Award Finalists Exhibition, Rotorua Museum, Rotorua.
2017 Pivot, Year 3 BCI graduate exhibition, Toi Ohomai, Tauranga.
2017 Tightrope Contemporary Drawing exhibition, Browne School of Art Gallery, Auckland.
2017 All In 2, Wallace Gallery, Morrinsville.
2017 Mix, Toi Ohomai, Tauranga.
Publications/Podcasts
2022 Hand me Down – a personal commentary influenced by ideological roles and rituals. Essay by Dr. Graeme Cornwell
ISBN: 978-0-473-61356-3
2021 Creative Patapatai podcast (2021)- creative-patapatai-podcasts.simplecast.com/episodes/lynette-fisher-artist
2021 Creative Matters podcast (2021) www.creativematters.co.nz/post/creativemattersepisode30
2019 La Petite Mort – ecstasy, seduction and orgasm.
ISBN 978-0-473 -50110-5
2019 Leafa Wilson discusses 'Me Too (2019)' at the Rotorua Art Awards https://www.facebook.com/762370743/videos/10158962054965744/
2018 Dear Boobs compiled by Emily Searle
ISBN: 978-0-473-43844-9
2016 Grim Tales - A book of illustrated journeys
ISBN: 978-0-473-34582-2
Education
2017 Bachelor Creative Industries, Toi Ohomai Tauranga
2002 Diploma Interior Design, Open Polytechnic NZ
2002 Guild Commended Framer, UK Trade Guild
1989 Certificate Graphic Design & Display, AUT, Auckland
Other
2025 Guest Judge Harcourts Challenge, Artists Collective, Whangamatā
2023 Guest Judge Harcourts Challenge, Artists Collective, Whangamatā
2021 Judge, June Competitions, Tauranga Art Society