Piera McArthur
Painting by Piera McArthur

Piera McArthur ONZM · 1929 – 2025

One Of New Zealand’s Foremost Contemporary Artists, Piera’s Work Is Celebrated For Its ‘Joie-De-Vivre’ And For Its Optimistic Energy.

Piera lived and worked for many years in Paris and, later, while painting in Moscow, became the first New Zealander to hold a solo exhibition at the New Tretiakov Gallery, an achievement that received a glowing review in Pravda.

“My Job As A Painter Is To Use Paint”

Novelist and critic, Keith Ovenden, once wrote,

“We feel an almost absurd sense of happiness, so that we want to laugh without really knowing why. It isn’t because Piera is a satirist – as some want to label her – and it isn’t solely because she is such a marvellous colourist or because of the relationships she develops between the subjects that appear in her paintings but rather, I think, because of the way the paint is applied… the glue that binds her work into the force for happiness.”

“In Russia, I Came Of Age As A Painter.”

Her paintings reflect a lifetime of sophisticated living across many of the world’s great capitals, observing the parade of humanity with a gently satirical eye, incisive line work and vigorous brushstrokes.

Today, Piera’s paintings continue to be widely admired and collected, carrying forward the warmth, vitality, humour and humanity that defined both her work and her life.