Bio

Sally Greer is an Aotearoa New Zealand artist based in Leigh, on the Tīkapa Moana coast north of Tāmaki Makaurau. Her practice centres on figurative painting and portraiture — work concerned with psychological presence, interior states, and the ambiguity that lives in human expression.

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She works on raw linen and vintage patterned fabrics — surfaces that carry the history of their making. Applying acrylic and ink, she paints into and around existing patterns, letting some breathe through and covering others. The work explores what stains and stays, what fades, what we choose to cover and what we allow to remain — questions that belong as much to memory and relationship as to paint and cloth.

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She holds a Bachelor of Graphic Design from Auckland University of Technology and studied mixed-media painting at Central Saint Martins, London — where she first developed her process of layering fabric, washed colour, and mark-making. While living in London she co-founded 57A, a gallery in Hoxton that hosted regular exhibitions and drew together artists, designers, and people who simply wanted to make and share work.

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She is the founder of Beatnik Publishing, an independent press recognised internationally for its beautifully crafted books — honoured at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the Designers Institute of New Zealand Best Design Awards, and the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, among others. That same eye for craft and story drives the work in her studio.

She has exhibited through Kim Meredith Gallery and shown alongside fellow artists at Foundation Gallery, Leigh. She is actively developing representation across Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally.

 

Painting is where that restless curiosity was always going to end up.