Plomacy

Thank you to everyone who joined us for last week's opening of Venus Blacklaws' first solo 𝘼𝙇𝙇𝙀𝙔 𝘾𝘼𝙏.

The exhibition continues till 19 July, visit us at the gallery Fridays to Sundays 11am-3pm or make an appointment.

'carpet'
2026
Acrylic on wood
810 x 1220mm

OPENING NEXT WEEK
ᴀʟʟᴇʏ ᴄᴀᴛ
A solo by Venus Blacklaws

Join us for the opening celebrations, all are welcome.
🗓 Saturday, 13 June, 4 – 6:30PM 
📍 8 Brown St, Ponsonby Central

Venus Blacklaws (b. 1999, Whakatāne) is an artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Publicly recognised for their work across performance, installation, costume design, and as part of the artist collective The Killing, Blacklaws’ practice is concerned with the mutability of the Body, and illusions of Self. Blacklaws draws from surrealist and drag conventions to unravel and re-present narratives of s*x, gender, mythology and transformation into a single embodied language. 

In ᴀʟʟᴇʏ ᴄᴀᴛ, Blacklaws reveals the private painting practice that has underlined their work to date. Recent showings include Live to Tell (Basement Theatre, 2026), 15 Minutes of Fame (Plomacy, 2025), Flesh or Wound (Basement Theatre, 2025), Cirque Du Killing: Feast (COCA, 2024), Imaginary Friends (Toi o Tāmaki, 2024).

Image: Detail of ‘wallpaper’ (2026), acrylic on wood, 810x1220mm

Some in-situ stills of 𝘙𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘪 𝘒𝘶𝘳𝘶𝘩𝘰 - Ashleigh Taupaki's latest video work at the gallery.

Final week to view through windows 24/7, in the gallery Friday to Sunday 11am-3pm, or by appointment.

OPENING 13 JUNE, SATURDAY
Plomacy presents ᴀʟʟᴇʏ ᴄᴀᴛ, a suite of new paintings by Venus Blacklaws.

ᴀʟʟᴇʏ ᴄᴀᴛ is a body of work that invites feline & feral articulations of remembering, and observes the displacement of the stray.

Employing the archetypal cat as a liminal body within liminal spaces, Blacklaws ponders grief as something atmospheric and energetic.

Transience manifests into the physical form; the ᴀʟʟᴇʏ ᴄᴀᴛ roams freely, between many worlds and its many lives.

Join us for the celebrations on 13 June, 4-6:30pm at the gallery on 8 Brown St, Ponsonby Central. All are welcome.

𝘙𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘪 𝘒𝘶𝘳𝘶𝘩𝘰, Ashleigh Taupaki's solo is on view at Plomacy to 31 May.

By translating the reo Māori translation of Robinson Crusoe (1719) by Daniel Defoe into the aesthetic language of platform-driven media systems, Taupaki explores the evolving relationship between propaganda and pedagogy, tracing how imposed ways of knowing move across formats and audiences, from printed colonial literature to the infrastructures of contemporary digital culture.
𝘙𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘪 𝘒𝘶𝘳𝘶𝘩𝘰 extends this analysis by asking how such ideological frameworks might circulate among rangatahi Māori today.

Ashleigh Taupaki’s Works on Paper presentation was measured and deliberate. Legislative fragments, processed and set adrift through cyanotype. 🖋️

Thank you to everyone who joined us at the booth—we already miss having these works with us.

The artist’s ongoing solo at our Brown Street gallery, 𝘙𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘪 𝘒𝘶𝘳𝘶𝘩𝘰, continues through 31 May.
taupaki

Ngā mihi nui to everyone who visited us at the Aotearoa Art Fair this weekend. Here are some pics of our loud and proud Futures presentation with Brittany Walker Smith and Ruth Watson.

Lobster girl will live on in our hearts forever. 🦞

Plomacy is only ever possible with the mahi of our wonderful artists.





Images by

Some friends with Ruth Watson's 𝘈 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘶𝘧𝘧. Come through to booth 56 for our futures presentation. Fair ends tomorrow 6pm xx

Ashleigh Taupaki
Works on Paper | Booth 55

taupaki

Brittany Walker Smith & Ruth Watson
Booth 43 at the Aotearoa Art Fair