About Janet Mazenier

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

In 2025, I led an international collective called Meitheal (an Irish term for people who support each other to bring in the harvest) —a collaboration born from time spent at the Burren College of Art in County Clare, Ireland. The collective includes world-building-bending women from Scotland, Spain, the United States, Ireland, and Aotearoa New Zealand. Our work Faultlines was exhibited at the Sluice World Building exhibition in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland, in May, with a focus on inclusivity, art-making, and shared joy.

I am 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.

I work from two studios in Te Hau Kapua Devonport – one at my 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 me at janet.mazenier@gmail.com or use the contact form. Works that are no longer available are tagged ‘NLA’.

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

My paintings are created using oil paint mixed with beeswax (known as cold wax medium), enabling a low-toxic practice that results in ephemeral, textural works. Using cold wax allows for 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.