Made, Stevei Houkāmau, Sam Kelly, Kelly McDonald, Neke Moa, Joe Sheehan, and Matthew McIntyre Wilson
Opening 5pm, Thursday 21 May 2026
Jhana Millers is pleased to present Made, a group exhibition considering the lives of objects and how materials are gathered, shaped, worn, inherited, and transformed.
Bringing together six artists — Stevei Houkāmau, Sam Kelly, Kelly McDonald, Neke Moa, Joe Sheehan, and Matthew McIntyre Wilson — Made reflects the expanded field of contemporary jewellery practice in Aotearoa, moving between adornment, sculpture, and installation.
Across the exhibition, bone, stone, metal, uku, fibre, and found materials are transformed through processes grounded in memory, whakapapa, utility, and care. Underlying these practices is a shared attentiveness to material and the histories it carries.
Together, the artists in Made consider how objects hold identity, cultural continuity, and relationships to place, reflecting on what it means to make in Aotearoa today.
A text by Zoe Black will accompany the exhibition.
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Stevei Houkāmau (Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui) uses uku to explore whakapapa and wāhine connections across Te Moana nui a Kiwa. Her carved uku forms move between adornment, installation, and sculptural presence.
Sam Kelly uses meticulously prepared bone to create intricate sculptural forms that hold tension, movement, and energy through processes of cutting, shaping, and joining.
Kelly McDonald collects and rearranges fragments of domestic and industrial life, creating compositions that sit between adornment, artefact, and wall-based object.
Neke Moa (Whare Papaīra, Ngāti Kahungunu, Kai Tahu, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Tūwharetoa) seeks to deepen connections between tāngata, tohunga, and atua. Using materials from the taiao and drawing on both customary and contemporary processes, she works to make mātauranga and pūrākau more accessible.
Joe Sheehan’s stone-carving practice moves between adornment, artefact, and sculpture, examining the complex relationship between material, body, and environment.
Matthew McIntyre Wilson (Taranaki, Ngā Māhanga, Tītahi) draws from customary Māori weaving practices, translating raranga techniques into precious materials through processes of making, research, and cultural reconnection.