B St Gallery
Te Whau is brimming with creative talent, yet opportunities to exhibit locally remain limited. In response, ArtsWhau has partnered with the team at Browne St to establish B St Gallery, an evolving exhibition space inside one of Avondale’s popular cafés.
“We’re especially keen to support local artists, providing a platform to share your work with the community,” says Sam from Browne St.
With zero commission on sales, artists keep 100% of any proceeds, making this an accessible and supportive option for emerging and established creatives alike.
Following a public call-out, we received interest from over 25 visual artists, the majority based right here in the Whau. While cafés and restaurants are sometimes overlooked as serious exhibition venues, B St Gallery is proving to be a valued space where art is seen, celebrated, and purchased by locals.
This partnership demonstrates what can happen when local business and community arts join forces, creating visibility for artists and a creative experience for everyone.
Kerin Casey | Verto
Kerin Casey is a contemporary artist based in Blockhouse Bay, Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand. She has a Master of Fine Arts (First Class Honours) from Whitecliffe College, a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Whitelcliffe, a Certificate in Design and Digital Media from Whitecliffe, and a Bachelor of Arts in English and History from Canterbury University.
Her practice explores transformation through connection and adaptability.
Made using temporary attachments of notches and tabs, I make hybrid structures that are both painting and sculpture and have the potential to be undone and re-assembled. Without permanent attachment each object holds in a momentary state of transition, reliant on provisional interconnectedness to maintain form. Over time the component pieces develop a past, present, and future. There is evidence of a life lived, a paused current moment, and potential for further possibilities. Holding vestiges of previous forms and colours, they are fixed in space and time but only for a captured instant, reserving the right to change their minds in the future. They do not come to a permanent conclusion for display, rather they continue to evolve over time.
Previous exhibitions
Hui Koorero
Tracey Tawhiao
March – June 2026
This work honours Hui Koorero, the earlier Māori name for this place, Avondale – a site of gathering and speaking. Drawing from an archive of images, whānau creativity, and past artworks, Tawhiao layers colour, pattern, and symbol to recreate that meeting of voices in visual form.
Each piece is a reflection of the community’s living spirit – vibrant, layered, and ever-changing. The ika (fish) move through currents of red, pink, and gold, carrying messages of flow and unity, while white linework wraps the glass in patterns of connection – a visual whakapapa linking people, place, and wairua.
Here, Te Ao Mārama – the world of light – finds form in the heart of Avondale, transforming everyday space into a site of renewal and joy. The work celebrates creative expression as collective healing, inviting passers-by to pause, reflect, and remember the beauty that lives among us.
Mum and AD
Ladybug_bebe and Nia Vavao
December – March 2026
Mum and AD uncovers and explores the world of vibrant colour and imagery felt around Avondale. Often our community can be portrayed in ways that present themselves as contradictory to the lived experience. For this work it was important for us to share mum’s perspective on how she has experienced Avondale as a Sāmoan woman. Her alofa and tautua to make things work so that we can continue to live in this beautiful community remind us to reflect on where we’re placed and how it makes us feel. People and places are showcased through this work by way of mixed media, the crossover of these practices reflect the different textures and layers that make up the fabric of what is a snippet into Mum’s life in AD.
JESSIE KANJI
September -December 2025
Jessie Kanji is a multi-disciplinary artist, researcher and educator. She specialised in print, graduating with a Postgraduate Diploma of Fine Arts with distinction from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland in 2023. In her practice-led research, she has worked across the related fields of drawing, photography, paper-making, textiles, and ceramics.
Informed by her background in medical science, her art searches for the balance between order and chaos. Patterns in her inner world form the lens by which she sees the world. Kanji primarily uses print as a method of thinking to access cultural exchange, memory and meaning. In the amber-like qualities of ink, her work seeks to evoke the concept of rasa – a state of total absorption and emotional resonance.
Jessie was awarded a fellowship award to complete Master of Fine Arts at Rhode Island School of Design which began this month and any sales will contribute to supporting this opportunity.
ARWEN FLOWERS – Browne St. Artist June-September 2025
New Zealand artist Arwen Flowers (MVA) examines body-held and felt learning through her painting practice. Each painting contains traces of a unique visual language encoded with references to places, people, objects, memories and experiences. While applying and removing mediums with wiping and scrubbing motions, Flowers explores states of physical and material control. Each mark results from proximity encounters with prepared surfaces and is influenced by sensory-based engagement and the influence of borrowed colour while working with and against abjection. Flowers’ painting practice questions notions of care and agency.
