For Tyla Bow, the ocean is both a place of discovery and an enduring source of creative inspiration.

As a qualified scuba instructor, she has spent time beneath the surface observing marine life and the relationships that sustain it. Her background in marine biology gives her another way of looking closely at this world, while her training at Elam School of Fine Arts allows her to respond through material and form.

Tyla works across glass, ceramics, stone, metal and photography. She is particularly drawn to found and reclaimed materials, collecting and processing much of the glass she uses herself.

Her glass sculptures reveal an unexpected fluidity in a material we usually think of as rigid. Light moves through folds and curves, while changes in heat and gravity help shape each piece. Tyla welcomes these unpredictable moments, allowing the material to play a part in the finished work.

In her Flow series, recycled glass becomes freestanding and wall-mounted forms that suggest currents, marine growth and continual movement. Each sculpture is individually made, carrying its own balance of control and chance.

Tyla also creates ceramics from reclaimed clay and recycled materials whenever possible. Shaped, fired twice and glazed by hand, these works retain the textures and variations that make each one distinct.

Across her practice, Tyla explores transformation: how a discarded material can become something valued, and how looking closely at the natural world can change the way we understand our place within it. Her work holds both the beauty and fragility of marine environments without losing its sense of curiosity and possibility.

Teaching and sharing knowledge are important to Tyla. Whether through art or diving, she encourages others to observe more carefully and develop their own connection with te taiao, the natural world.

Tyla graduated from Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland. She has received first prizes for the Henrietta and Lola Anne Tunbridge Watercolour Scholarship and the Denise Gerard Photography Scholarship, and her work has been exhibited at Elam and Art in the Park.

Her sculptures invite us to pause, move around them and notice what changes with the light—just as the underwater world reveals more the longer we look.

Because discovery often begins when we look beneath the surface.