Caroline McQuarrie

Caroline McQuarrie
McQuarrie in 2014
Born
Caroline Lucy McQuarrie

1975 (age 50–51)
Greymouth, New Zealand
Known forPhotography, textiles
Websitecarolinemcquarrie.com

Caroline Lucy McQuarrie (born 1975) is a New Zealand artist and senior lecturer in photography at Massey University in Wellington. McQuarrie's work explores social, colonial and land-use histories, and the role of photography and hand-crafted textiles in representing or questioning these complex narratives.[1]

Life

McQuarrie was born in 1975[2] in Greymouth, on the West Coast of the South Island. Her father, Bob McQuarrie, was a potter and her mother, Barbara McQuarrie, a textile artist.[3] McQuarrie enjoyed drawing from an early age, and was influenced by friends of her family, photographer Frank Simpson and potter Daphne Simpson, who together ran Coast Craft in Greymouth. Daphne taught McQuarrie to draw and paint, and she studied photography and painting in her final year of high school.[3] At the University of Canterbury, McQuarrie studied photography, completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in 1997.[3]

After graduating, McQuarrie worked as a technician in photography laboratories in the United Kingdom, where she learnt and refined her skills with photo retouching and Adobe Photoshop. McQuarrie returned to New Zealand in 2002 and gained a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from Massey University in Wellington in 2005. By this time she was also working in the university's photography department as a tutor, a job which became full time.[3] McQuarrie is a Senior Lecturer in Photography at Massey University's College of Creative Arts Toi Rauwhārangi in Wellington.[4]

Artistic career

No Town, Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery, Titirangi, 2015

In 2010, McQuarrie was an artist in residence at Samuel Marsden Collegiate School for five weeks.[3] Work created during the residency was exhibited as Reasons for Silence, at the Toi Pōneke gallery, Wellington in 2010. Reviewer Mark Bolland, noted that '[e]scaping the loudness, McQuarrie explores memory, domesticity, belonging and the values of handmade things.'[5] In 2023, McQuarrie undertook the 8 week Gullies Arts Residency in the Rangitīkei District.[6] The main work McQuarrie produced during the residency, ‘Gullies’, was a finalist in the 2025 Molly Morpeth Canaday Award.[7]

His labour is gouged into the land (2021), from The New Sun exhibition, Jhana Millers Gallery, Wellington

McQuarrie's work often explores personal and family histories, particular of early Pākehā settler women, combining photography and textiles in her art.[2] One of her photography projects has been sites of former mining settlements such as Waiuta in the West Coast region.[2] Photographing former mining settlements - referred to as 'ghost towns' - near where she grew up lead to McQuarrie's series No Town. The settlement of Waiuta and the photographer and miner who lived there, Joseph Divis (1885-1967), has informed and inspired aspects of McQuarrie's process.[8]

McQuarrie has used alternative photography techniques like cyanotype and photograms, and incorporates crochet, sewing, and stitching into her work.[3] McQuarrie counts Australian photographer Anne Ferran among her influences.[3]

For the 2018 exhibition Prospects Fearful, McQuarrie and fellow artist Shaun Matthews, researched the 1846 journey of explorer Thomas Brunner and his Māori guides from Nelson to the West Coast and back. The finished work included large fabric-printed photographs taken with a pinhole camera, embroidered samplers with texts from Brunner's diary, and a collection of pāraerae sandals woven from harakeke.[9]

In 2021, Jhana Millers Gallery started representing McQuarrie and her first solo show with the dealer gallery was The New Sun, which included linen samplers embroidered with the imagined words of pioneer women, complemented by colour photographs of the landscapes transformed by mining.[10][11]

Significant works

  • This is the First Day of My Life (2008–09), a floor work made of recycled wool, cotton, and acrylic[3][12]

Select solo exhibitions

  • Reasons for Silence. 2010, Toi Pōneke Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington.[5]
  • Artifact. 19 June – 21 July 2012, Blue Oyster Art Project Space, Dunedin.[13]
  • No Town. 24 April 2014 – 23 August 2015, Aratoi, Masterton; Carnegie Gallery, Hokitika; Left Bank Art Gallery, Greymouth; Te Uru Waitākere, Auckland.[14][15]
  • Homewardbounder. 1 April – 25 April 2015, Enjoy Public Art Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington.[16][17]
  • Waiuta. 16 November – 10 December 2015, Plymouth University, United Kingdom.
  • The New Sun. 11 February – 13 March 2021, Jhana Millers Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington.[18]
  • The Blasted Heath. 2022, Jhana Millers Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington.[19]
  • How deep into the earth we sink. 2024, Jhana Millers Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington.[19]
  • Like The Turf. 2 November 2024 - 26 January 2025, Forrester Gallery, Ōamaru.[20][21]
  • The land, again. 31 January 2026 - 19 April 2026, Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History, Masterton.[22]

Select group exhibitions

  • The Hive Hums With Many Minds. 12 March - 24 May 2016, Te Tuhi, Pakuranga, Auckland, curated by Bruce E. Phillips.[23]
  • Prospects Fearful. With Shaun Matthews, 2018 - 2021, Suter Art Gallery, Nelson; Carnegie Gallery, Hokitika Museum; Left Bank Art Gallery, Greymouth; Hastings City Art Gallery, Heretaunga.[19]
  • She Shed: Contemporary Wool Craft. 17 March 2022 - 16 October 2022, Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, curated by Dr Bronwyn Lloyd.[24][25]
  • Slow Burn: Women and Photography | Ahi Tāmau: Māreikura Whakaahua. 1 March 2026 - 31 January 2027, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington.[26][27]

Collections

References

  1. ↑ "About Caroline McQuarrie". Caroline McQuarrie - Artist. Retrieved 5 June 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. 1 2 3 "Caroline McQuarrie". Jhana Millers Gallery. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Keppel, Jo (24 May 2012). "Fibre Art". Greymouth Star. p. 6.
  4. ↑ "About". Caroline McQuarrie. Retrieved 4 June 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. 1 2 Bolland, Mark. "Something Old, Something New: Caroline McQuarrie's Reasons for Silence". Art New Zealand. 138 (Winter 2011): 68–70.
  6. ↑ "Connecting art with agriculture". Nine to Noon with Kathryn Ryan, Radio New Zealand. Retrieved 4 June 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. ↑ "Molly Morpeth Canaday Award Catalogue (2025)" (PDF). Molly Morpeth Canaday Awards. Retrieved 5 June 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ↑ McQuarrie, Caroline (24 November 2021). "Re-visioning Joseph Divis and Waiuta". Blog - National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa. Retrieved 5 June 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ↑ Alice, Tappenden (22 December 2018). "Prospecting the Past". Art News New Zealand: 62–65.
  10. ↑ Duffy, Mary-Jane (18 March 2021). "Caroline McQuarrie – reviewed". PhotoForum. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
  11. ↑ "Artist - Caroline McQuarrie". Jhana Millers Gallery. Retrieved 5 June 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ↑ "This is the First Day of My Life : Caroline McQuarrie". www.carolinemcquarrie.com. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  13. ↑ "Artifact | Blue Oyster". blueoyster.org.nz. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  14. ↑ "The No Town Project". RNZ. 2 November 2014. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  15. ↑ Hines, Kerry. "No Town Catalogue PDF" (PDF). Caroline McQuarrie - Artist - Publications. ISBN 978-0-473-28119-9. Retrieved 5 June 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: periodical has ISBN (link) CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ↑ "Homewardbounder". Enjoy Public Art Gallery. Retrieved 5 June 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ↑ Hubbard, Jessica. "Homewardbounder Catalogue PDF" (PDF). Enjoy Public Art Gallery. ISBN 978-0-473-32016-4. Retrieved 5 June 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: periodical has ISBN (link) CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  18. ↑ "Caroline McQuarrie, The New Sun | 11 February - 13 March 2021". Jhana Millers Gallery. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  19. 1 2 3 "Caroline McQuarrie - artist's CV" (PDF). Jhana Millers Gallery. Retrieved 5 June 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  20. ↑ "Like The Turf | Caroline McQuarrie". Forrester Gallery. Retrieved 4 June 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  21. ↑ Cooper, Annabel. "Like the Turf Catalogue PDF" (PDF). Caroline McQuarrie - Artist - Publications. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 February 2026. Retrieved 5 June 2026.
  22. ↑ "Caroline McQuarrie: The land, again". Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History. Retrieved 4 June 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  23. ↑ Hurrell, John. "One Mind with Multiple Bodies". Eye Contact Magazine. Retrieved 5 June 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  24. ↑ "She Shed: Contemporary Wool Craft Exhibition". Dowse Art Museum. Retrieved 5 June 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  25. ↑ Lloyd, Dr Bronwyn. "SHE SHED: Contemporary Wool Craft Catalogue PDF" (PDF). Dowse Art Museum. Retrieved 5 June 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  26. ↑ "Slow Burn: Women and Photography | Ahi Tāmau: Māreikura Whakaahua". Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Archived from the original on 17 June 2026. Retrieved 4 June 2026.
  27. ↑ "Watch: Caroline McQuarrie talks about her series 'No Town'". Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Retrieved 4 June 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  28. ↑ "Woollens and Worsteds (2022)". Collections Dowse Art Museum. Retrieved 4 June 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  29. ↑ "Homewardbounder #1 (2014)". City Art Collection, Wellington City Council. Retrieved 4 June 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  30. ↑ "Caroline McQuarrie". Collections The Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū. Retrieved 4 June 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  31. ↑ "Caroline McQuarrie". Collections Te Papa. Retrieved 4 June 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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