Venus Hoy
Multidisciplinary art
Kei roto i te Tai Timu – Tai Pari, 2020
Photography tbd.
V Hoy is a multidisciplinary artist who consciously defies definition. She combines technical skill with a depth of thought and feeling, understanding and articulation that permeates all she creates across a multitude of media. From her early study of fashion design, to her tattoo apprenticeship, to her Bachelor of Creative Practice at EIT’s IDEAschool, where she learned the wizardry of digital collage, building on her already significant painting and photography skills, V Hoy has immersed herself in the arts, giving all of herself to her many varied creative projects.
As a model, photographer and stylist she brings an offbeat sense of the extraordinary to her imagery, enhanced by her intuitive digital manipulation. A ‘big click’ moment came for her when she discovered digital collage, pushing the boundaries of her work by distorting her photographs to create surrealistic artworks that tell a story, evoke a feeling and a meaning. Her graduate project, the Passport Collection, explored identity, fusing digitally manipulated imagery with text to produce portraits which, more than simply recording her subjects’ physical appearance, told something of their history, spoke to their experience. This collection exhibited both locally and at various galleries across the North Island, provoking thought and starting discussions even as they were valued on their aesthetic merit.
As a tattoo artist, V connects with her clients, producing personalised designs in a range of styles that are both beautiful and meaningful. She tattoos from the 116 Studios (adjacent to SpaceShip gig venue) on Karamu Road in Hastings, where she also holds space, paints and creates.
Most of us around Hawke’s Bay will know V for her extensive mural work in the region. She most recently painted the Puti Lancaster memorial mural on Hastings’ Queen Street, but her work can be found on power boxes, public facilities and various corporate and council sites throughout the region.
As part of Education New Zealand’s pioneering Creatives in Schools programme, she collaborated with students from Hastings Girls High School, supporting them to produce a series of murals depicting diverse wāhine toa that reflected the demographic and ideals of the school girls. In doing so she discovered a love of and aptitude for teaching, and she frequently takes young emerging artists under her wing.
The summers see V travelling the country in her mobile domicile, distinctively painted as befits her creative nature. On the festival circuit, she specialises in live painting, creating works that audiences can watch come together in real time over the duration of an event. Though her subject matter has a diverse range, she comes back again and again to faces and flowers for which she has both talent and affinity.
Her moniker, Defy, holds a close place in her heart. Defined as the state of being “of such a kind or nature, a specific attitude or action, that is almost impossible,” it succinctly articulates the place V holds on the edges of the art scene, challenging notions of high and low art from the gallery to the street.
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