Lee-Ann Toyokawa
Still Life Fine Artist
Lee-Ann Toyokawa is a still life artist based in Nelson, New Zealand. Drawing on upcycled materials, vintage wallpapers, religious iconography, and collectibles, Lee-Ann’s work has a nostalgic and haunting quality.
My ideas are always evolving as I grow older and life changes. I used the cup motif repeatedly in my work to represents domesticity, nurturing, and memories.
Lee-Ann developed her artistic style over many years juggling her practice with raising four children. She describes her art from this period as working through ongoing themes of identity in relation to motherhood and domesticity. She has been influenced by Sally Mankus’s mixed media and recycled object art, Sylvia Siddell’s “anxious household” still lifes, and Jacqueline Fahey’s portraits of domestic family relations. She especially appreciates Tony Fomison who uses a monochrome palette of thinly applied paint wiped back to expose light; Lee-Ann thinks of this as a metaphor for “wiping clean layers of grim.”
Inspired by 17th Century Dutch Vanitas painting, Lee-Ann’s current still life paintings combine religious icons, wallpaper patterns, and symbolic childhood collectibles with New Zealand native flora and fauna. Some of her most recent work is about her late mother.
Her china cabinet was full of treasures she had collected throughout her life, all having her special memories attached to them. Sadly, when I go to the recycle centres and garage sales I see hundreds of these same treasures that have been discarded. I collect and use these treasures in my art, breathing new life into these once loved objects.I think about the memories that might have been attached to each object. I use oil paint on recycled metal trays, doilies, table clothes, tea towels, cupboards, etc.
Lee-Ann was born in 1966 and grew up in Marlborough. She has lived in Nelson ever since leaving school. She holds a Visual Arts diploma and degree from Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology. Her work is held in private collections across New Zealand. Lee-Ann is available for commissions.
Art by the River is a modern Whanganui gallery, opened in December 2024. The gallery features a mix of emerging and established contemporary New Zealand artists, alongside an exclusive art Collectables selection of New Zealand fine art prints and paintings. As an art dealership and collector, we include rare and sought-after artworks by internationally recognised artists such as Gretchen Albrecht, Banksy, Damien Hirst, Ralph Hotere and, Andy Warhol. We are committed to supporting NZ artists through a regular art gallery exhibition in-house, connecting both NZ and international art collectors with meaningful artwork, and contributing to Whanganui's unique cultural environment.
