Anahera-Jade
Island Love Never Give Up
$auce, 2026 (detail)
Grace presents Island Love Never Give Up, a solo exhibition by artist Anahera-Jade curated by Jingcheng Zhao.
Island Love Never Give Up brings a new vibration that connects sound, emotion, shared memory, and power. Taking its name from signs found across the island of Apia, this exhibition carries forward a riot: airbrushed village buses and the undeniable presence of sirens across the Waitematā.
Ocean waves meet sound waves, and ocean waves are sound waves. Connecting technological conquests, echoes, and the outer reaches of space, Anahera-Jade rustles the feral, the surrounded, the DIY, the resistant, the abundant, the nourishing. Island Love Never Give Up is assembled through various subversive joys, asking “what kind of frequencies are we in?”
HE PIKO HE TANIWHA RAU!
Anahera-Jade is an artist (Tainui/Samoa) based in Tāmaki Makaurau whose practice orbits explorations of mana motuhaketanga, pacific-punk and pūrakau through the medium of airbrush painting, sound and installation. She participated in the Hononga X Aroha Residency with Hoea! Gallery and is a member of Sonic Hapori. Her work has been shown at Te Tuhi, Puku Gallery, The Physics Room, Tautai and The Kit - Artspace Aotearoa.
What frequency is the ocean?, 2026 Looped audio, polystyrene box, speaker driver, wire, amplifier, acrylic paint Dimensions variable
What frequency is the ocean?, 2026 (detail)
SONIC ANGELS drink coconut water, migration. returns, hairclip & $sauce, 2026 (installation)
$auce, 2026 MDF panel, acrylic paint 600 x 600
Hairclip, 2026 MDF panel, acrylic paint 210 x 297
migration. returns, 2026 MDF panel, acrylic paint 405 x 405
SONIC ANGELS drink coconut water, 2026 MDF panel, acrylic paint 420 x 297
something has always guided me, 2026 (installation)
something has always guided me, 2026 Canvas, acrylic paint 1100 x 758
something has always guided me, 2026 (detail)
something has always guided me & the kiekie will tell you, 2026 (installation)
the kiekie will tell you, 2026 MDF panel, acrylic paint 840 × 595
the kiekie will tell you, 2026 (detail)
TBC
Interview with Jingcheng Zhao
J: Let’s begin with your trip to Samoa in 2024. It sparked your exploration in airbrush painting, and most of your new work is inspired by that trip. Perhaps it never left, why do you think that trip resurfaced at this stage of your practice?
AJ: A ‘first’ anything deserves special treatment, and being from the moana is special. So it feels right and it feels real, to celebrate my Samoan whakapapa for my first solo show. My trip to Samoa in 2024 revealed some of the elements that this show and my practice is centred around. The village buses in particular, they were these monstrous waka I had never seen before, beautifully and intricately airbrushed with local village declarations, blasting a loud DIY island sound. To me it felt like pasifika punk pride.
I think memories have a patience about them, they can wait for you, and it’s powerful when they take over and start to guide the visual and physical decisions. It's kind of spooky. I felt that in this show.
J: One question you discovered throughout this exhibition is the frequency of the ocean. Do you want to spoil the answer?
AJ: But if I told you the answer, you might stop wandering... ;)
J: You make art, make music, DJ, draw, run artist-run space... how do you feel about practising in Aotearoa (/Tāmaki) as an artist at this moment (July 2026)? What helps, and what is difficult?
AJ: Right now. In this moment. On this whenua. In some places it feels broken and fractured. In other places it feels regenerative and limitless. I can feel something is shifting, maybe it's for collective care, radical dreaming, moana spaces that are centered on relationship and Island! Love! That doesn't burn us out but rather out shine and out live the paru in this world. I hope someone reads this in 10 years and we’ve worked out a way to be more awesome and less paru.
I don't really want to sell this one, 2026 Ato flex, acrylic paint 215 x 280 x 120
Please contact the gallery here to receive a catalogue for Island Love Never Give Up.