PHILIPPA BLAIR

(1945–2025)

Philippa Blair was one of New Zealand’s most distinctive abstract painters, renowned for her expressive, gestural paintings and an artistic practice defined by restless experimentation. Over more than five decades, Blair developed a visual language in which exuberant colour, layered marks and dynamic compositions navigate the shifting territory between order and chaos, the physical and the spiritual, the personal and the universal.

Born in Christchurch, Blair graduated from the University of Canterbury’s Ilam School of Fine Arts in 1967. Her career took her across New Zealand, Australia and the United States, including two decades in Los Angeles, where she continued to exhibit internationally. Working primarily in painting, she also explored lithography, drawing and sculptural forms, transforming unstretched canvases into cloaks, shelters and other constructed works that challenged the boundaries between painting and three-dimensional space. An artist of formidable energy and an enduring spirit of inquiry, she leaves a body of work that continues to challenge, surprise and reward close attention.