Tom Mackie

Tom Mackie (b. 1985 Ōamaru, North Otago) lives and works in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington.

There are dual forces at work in Mackie's practice, distinct yet complementary. The first is an archival impulse, an appreciation for the marks objects accumulate through use: wear, obsolescence, the residue of former life. This sensibility runs close to home. In his 2026 exhibition Portals, it surfaced through a ghost print lifted from the backing board of a Robin White screenprint, a spectral fragment tied to his own family's history in the built environment of Kaitangata, South Otago.

The second tendency is anti-gestural. Mackie works in refined surfaces and tightly controlled forms that suppress evidence of the artist's hand, favouring restraint over expression. The tension between these two impulses, one drawn to accumulated memory, the other to formal discipline, places his practice beyond