About Janet Mazenier

Based in Te Hau Kapua Devonport in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Janet Mazenier is a contemporary abstract artist whose practice engages with place, time, affect, world bending, and materiality. Her drawn-paintings are characterised by texturally rich, excavated, and striated surfaces that evoke ancientness, the hidden, the unseen, and the ephemeral.

Janet’s research poses the question of what it means to be a contemporary artist living and working in Aotearoa New Zealand, viewed through the lens of her diasporic Irish heritage. Her practice-led PhD explores ways of seeing and understanding place and memory, with fieldwork and art-making taking place in both Aotearoa and Ireland.

In 2025, Janet is leading an international collective called Meitheal—a collaboration born from time spent at the Burren College of Art in County Clare, Ireland. The collective includes world-bending, world-building women from Scotland, Spain, the United States, Ireland, and Aotearoa New Zealand. Their work will be exhibited in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland, in May, with a focus on inclusivity, art-making, and shared joy.

Janet is also a member of the MotherMother collective, which celebrates the work of women and non-binary artists in Aotearoa New Zealand – www.mothermother.co.nz.

She works from two studios in Te Hau Kapua Devonport – one at her home, and the other as part of the Studio D3 artists collective at Depot Artspace.

This website serves as a living portfolio rather than a shopfront, although works are available for purchase. To enquire about a piece, please email Janet at janet.mazenier@gmail.com or use the contact form. Works that are no longer available are tagged ‘NLA’.

Janet’s works are held in private and public collections, including tertiary institutions, across Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally.

Her paintings are created using oil paint mixed with beeswax (cold wax medium), enabling a low-toxic practice that results in ephemeral, textural works. The cold wax allows for both thick and thin layering, sgraffito techniques, and diverse mark-making. A variety of wet and dry media are used to build visual and tactile depth, creating layered, ethereal surfaces that give each work its distinct presence.

For exhibition and residency details visit the Bio.