artists
every piece has a story, and every story begins with an artist
NEW ZEALAND · CONTEMPORARY PAINTER & DRAWING ARTIST
Surfeboy
Surfeboy is a contemporary New Zealand artist whose paintings and drawings explore the social, cultural and technological forces shaping the way we live. Moving between personal experience and wider questions of inequality, capitalism, humanity, Māori culture, history and religion, his work becomes a direct and expressive way of speaking about the world around him.
about
Surfeboy works predominantly across painting and drawing, using acrylic on paper and canvas alongside oil pastel, pencil, ink and found materials.
His practice is led by personal narrative rather than a single fixed subject. Ideas enter the work through the experiences, observations and concerns influencing his life at a particular moment, allowing each piece to become part of an ongoing conversation.
Questions of inequality, the expansion of capitalism and technology, and the changing nature of humanity sit alongside more localised reflections on Māori culture, history and religion.
Surfeboy sees the present as an important time to be an artist. As the way we live and relate to one another continues to change, his work provides a space in which to examine those shifts and give visual form to his own response.
Materials are approached with freedom. Acrylic may be combined with pencil, ink or oil pastel, while found elements introduce physical traces of the everyday world. Working on both paper and canvas allows the process to move between immediacy and greater scale.
There is a raw, intuitive energy within Surfeboy’s work. Figures, symbols, marks and fragments meet without needing to resolve into a single interpretation, leaving space for humour, tension, unease and recognition.
Surfeboy completed a Master of Fine Arts at Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, in 2014.
His exhibition history spans more than two decades and includes solo exhibitions at Wine Country Gallery in Havelock North, OREX Gallery in Auckland and Paul Nache Gallery in Gisborne.
In 2005, his work was included in the group exhibition Friends of Basquiat in Paris, co-curated by Gregory O’Brien and Maripol. He later exhibited in Not One More Acre at Waikato Museum, as well as group exhibitions with GSP Gallery in Wellington.
More recently, Surfeboy’s work was included in Local As at Tairāwhiti Museum in 2025. In 2026, he presented the solo exhibition A Beautiful Dog at V11 Projects in Ponsonby, Auckland.
His art does not attempt to provide simple answers. Instead, it acts as a vehicle for his voice—responding to the contradictions of contemporary life and inviting viewers to consider what is changing, what is being lost and what deserves closer attention.
Because sometimes making art is how we find a way to speak when the world gives us too much to remain silent about.
Surfeboy
Three fields of colour bring fragments, marks and gestures into conversation.
The Sacrifice stretches across a long sheet of paper, moving from pale cream to vivid red and warm yellow. Short, dark marks recur across all three sections, connecting them despite their different colours and textures.
Drawn and collaged fragments gather in the red centre, while looser lines and strokes move through the yellow. The title adds weight to the work without fixing a single meaning, leaving space to look closely and make your own connections.
Its horizontal shape would suit a hallway, above a sideboard or along a study wall.
Layered · Vivid · Reflective
Mixed media on paper 29.5 × 63 cm 2024
UNFRAMED room images show a possible framing and placement. The artwork is sold unframed.