Tallulah Nunez

Tallulah Nunez is a New Zealand-born, mid-career artist with a unique style of painting that utilises both acrylic paints and an ink palette. Tallulah’s multi-layered, abstract artwork presents fantastical gardens and wide landscapes, showing us new details every time we look at them. Gazing at one painting, we might find purple seedpods, cherry blossom trees, NZ harakeke (flax), rising sunflowers, or a Van Gogh-like starry night. Another might show us floating icebergs and circling moons, while yet another offers a coconut tree before a rioting desert horizon. Landscapes that defy landscape conventions.

I would describe my working style as expressionist maximalism/surrealism. I create work that is extravagantly detailed, inclusive, eclectic and often unashamedly beautiful.

In the moment of painting, Tallulah is dedicated to her craft. Her work is spontaneous, each piece growing from one corner to spread across the canvas or board. Inspiration comes from her own experiences and news gathered during her walks and snippets from everyday life. Tallulah rarely involves reference images; instead, she transposes the psychological complexity of her interior world into lush and layered compositions. Her paintings might tell us something about the human condition, or about our place in the madness of contemporary life.

I’m interested in movement and rhythm. I want to create works that vibrate. I set about doing this by juxtaposing unlikely colours, and the repetitive use of patterns and marks. I embrace the pleasure of process for its own sake, inviting the viewer to engage with the mark-making and to follow the myriad paths into the work to discover their own interpretation of how and what they see.

There is a strongly recognisable yet very transient voice in Tallulah’s work. Natural motifs and patterned elements recur throughout: snake-like trees, floating moons, distorted reflections in bodies of water, and stippled night skies. Abstract and representational impulses co-exist in unorthodox harmony. There is a nuanced vulnerability to her work, an emotional charge or sensitivity, and intricate detail that is at once controlled, expressive, and experimental.

I need to create intently, slowly and methodically. But also randomly, unplanned and irrationally. It’s as though several parts of me take turns creating, each part taking control when needed. To be loose and free, rigid and meticulous, considered and analysing or playful and experimental.

Tallulah’s work is held in a number of private collections. She has been a finalist in the prestigious Parkin Drawing Award, the Miles Art Award, the Tasman Art Award, and the Cleveland Art Award.

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.