No rules at Hastings' ĀKINA Gallery

Anna Jepson, Sacha van den Berg and Ruebena P. Paraha at ĀKINA Gallery in Hastings.

Last Thursday night, ĀKINA gallery in Hastings opened its fifth exhibition in just under three months, a celebration of contrasting and complementary artists Anna Jepson, Ngāi Tahu and Danish descent, and Ruebena P. Paraha, Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Kahungunu,.

There's a saying in te ao Māori, "kei a koe te tikanga", which loosely translates to "you choose what is right for you".

This simple phrase underpins gallerist Sacha van den Berg's relationships with her artists, and provides them with the freedom to decide what their dealer relationship looks like.

There are no rules and definitely no one-size-fits-all at ĀKINA.

Sacha presents a balance of established and fledgling artists and the synergies that come with being a collaborative space.

For this exhibition, established and emerging artists are aligned. In established and accomplished artist Jepson's contemporary practice, the human form plays a decisive role.

She uses a mixture of mediums and enjoys painting on a large scale, relishing in juxtapos-ing a traditionally represented subject in abstract metaphoric backdrop, losing edges along the way often with the odd, serendipitous finds.

In this body of work, the metaphor, sinking in the emotive conversation of climate change, has never been more relevant in Aotearoa.

For emerging and promising artist Paraha, this is her first show. She was a student of Sandy Adsett and is studying at level 5 at Toimairangi, Te Wa-nanga O Aotearoa, undertaking a Diploma of Māori and Indigenous Art.

Bringing her 70 years' life experiences into her work, Paraha is excited to be having her very first show together with Jepson.

This recently opened exhibition presents new works that are elegant, mindful and impactful - both artists speaking to climate change, but more importantly, posing the question - now what?

Through two very different painting styles, we see symbolism and reference to a strong message that Jepson succinctly puts "... climate is a huge, all-embracing and urgent subject".

This message is echoed by Paraha through strongly narrative-driven paintings, each work representing a story that always links back to the topic at hand, climate change. Paraha and her paintings tell us, "He mea nui te whiriwhiri - Choices mat-ter".

Anna Jepson and Ruebena Paraha's exhibition is on show at ĀKINA until September 27.