Maddie Leach

Senior Lecturer in Fine Arts

MFA ( University of Canterbury)

BFA (Hons) ( University of Canterbury)

Maddie Leach was born in Auckland in 1970. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from the University of Canterbury, Christchurch and has lived and worked in Wellington since 1995. Her research practice is largely project-based, site responsive and explores ideas of audience spectatorship and participation in relation to art works. Solo projects such as The Ice Rink and The Lilac Ship (2002-2004), Take Me Down to Your Dance Floor (2004) and My Blue Peninsula (2006-2007) are significant installations, with accompanying publications, that have proposed questions about the role of the public art gallery - and the artist - within the broader leisure/culture industry. She has also developed a series of projects that focus on issues of trade, transportation and value for timber. Leach has capitalised on the ambient conditions of public gallery space to dry stacks of unprocessed lumber for which she subsequently holds online auctions on Trade Me™ and recently attempted to freight New Zealand-grown Eucalyptus logs to Chile. Her work has been represented in the New Zealand publication Speculation for the Venice Biennale 2007, commissioned for Trans Versa (The South Project, Chile, 2006) and included in the group exhibitions High Tide: new currents in art from Australia and New Zealand (Poland & Lithuania, 2006), World’s Edge (Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 2006) and Linked: connectivity and exchange (Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, 2005). Forthcoming research projects in 2008 include One Day Sculpture for Bistol based curator Claire Doherty in Wellington and an International Artist Residency at The National Sculpture Factory in Cork City, Ireland.

Research Highlights: Practice

2007 Andalucía. Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, Auckland, New Zealand .

2006 My Blue Peninsula. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand

2006 One Shining Gum (Savia Brillante). ‘Trans Versa’, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Santiago, Chile

2007 Primary Products. Adam Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand

Research Highlights: Publications

2007 My Blue Peninsula. Barton, C (Ed.). Essays by Anna Sanderson and Marcus Moore. Published by the artist.

2007 Speculation. Butler, B (Ed.) Published by Venice Project, Aoteroa, New Zealand and JRP | Ringier on the occation of the 52nd Biennale di Venezia.

2005 Take Me Down to Your Dance Floor. Essays by Justin Paton and Tony Green. Published by the artist.

2004 Gallery Six: The Ice Rink and The Lilac Ship. Barton, C (Ed.). Essays by Kathy Barry and Christina Barton. Published by the artist.