Judi Bagust Art | Contemporary Painting | Frame Workshop & Gallery

Judi Bagust

PAINTER / AUCKLAND

BIO

About Judi Bagust

Judi Bagust is a contemporary New Zealand painter whose work is grounded in heritage, environment and gestural mark-making. She comes from a family of artists spanning five generations. Her grandfather, Charles Bryant, was recognised for his oil painting Whanganui River at the 1925 New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition. A century later, her granddaughter completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts in painting at the Dunedin School of Art (2025), continuing the family’s creative tradition.

Judi earned a Master of Fine Arts from Whitecliffe College in 2013. Her practice is characterised by dynamic ink gestures that explore movement, place and rhythm. A poetry workshop with Anthony Joseph at the Auckland Writers Festival sparked a new direction, bringing sonnet writing together with painting in a visually poetic series. Her ability to translate emotion into fluid compositions is also evident in her large-scale ink commission for the Blue Room at Auckland Abstract Hotel.

Connection to land and water remains central to Judi’s work. Unable to visit her ancestral river, Te Hoiere-Pelorus, in 2020–2021, she layered colour over earlier black-and-white river marks, creating a striking three-dimensional effect. Her Native Bird Flight series draws inspiration from New Zealand birdlife. Her cultural learning has also shaped her practice: she studied Te Reo Māori at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa from 2018 to 2019.

Judi has collaborated on major commissions, including a 4.5-metre ink drawing for Paska Dining Room at Auckland’s Naumi Hotel. The hotel was later recognised by Forbes as one of the world’s top ten airport hotels.

Judi’s gestural mark-making has been influenced by the mentorship, workshops and personal encouragement of her friend, artist Max Gimblett. His approach to gesture helped shape the distinctive style she developed during her fine arts degree at Whitecliffe. This was followed by two solo exhibitions: Ipseity – Essence: The Interior Being of Self at Auckland Exhibitions Gallery in 2014, and The Inbetween at Wellington Exhibitions Gallery in 2015.

Growing up in Waitohi/Picton, Judi developed a deep connection to Te Waipounamu, the South Island, and the waters of Te Hoiere-Pelorus. She relates deeply to the whakataukī of Whanganui iwi, Ngāti Hauā: “Ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au”, or “I am the river and the river is me”. It speaks to her artistic philosophy, in which self and place are inseparable, expressed through movement and mark-making.

A finalist in eight national art competitions, including the Parkin Drawing Prize and the Molly Morpeth Canaday Art Award, Judi continues to exhibit, have her work collected and take on commissions, sustaining a lifelong dedication to artistic inquiry.

Browse Judi’s available paintings below, or enquire about a piece.