Ayesha Green is a wahine Māori artist (Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu) based in Ōtepoti, and is represented by Jhana Millers. Her practice explores mātauraka māori, nation building and the relationship between empire and indigeneity.

She graduated with a Bachelor of Media Arts from Wintec in 2009 and went on to finish a Master of Fine Arts from Elam in 2013. In 2016 she completed a Graduate Diploma in Arts specialising in Museums and Cultural Heritage. In 2019, she was announced the winner of the National Contemporary Art Awards, in 2021 was the recipient of the Rydal Art Prize, and in 2022 undertook the McCahon House residency, followed by a residency at Sacatar in Itaparica, Brazil in 2023. She is the 2023 recipient of the Harriet Friedlander Residency in New York, and departs in September 2024.

Ayesha has exhibited throughout New Zealand working with galleries such as City Gallery Wellington, Tauranga Art Gallery, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Auckland Art Gallery, The Dowse Art Museum and Hastings City Art Gallery. Since 2018 she has been working with Paemanu – a Ngāi Tahu contemporary visual art collective.

In 2020, Ayesha was awarded an Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Springboard award, and was mentored by Suzanne Ellinson MNZM.
"With the support of Suzanne, I will be growing skills in developing new initiatives that advocate for Maori agency, inclusion and engagement in New Zealand's cultural institutions and the wider arts sector."

We checked in with Ayesha in 2021 to see how the award had impacted her life one-year down the track.