Nat Tozer explores narratives of the underground to unearth objects and knowledge. She likes to dig, cast, frottage, film, imagine and animate the ground – splicing an expanded geological inquiry with science fiction and mythology. Working with time-based processes and materiality she is interested in folk tales, the revision of mythologies into a local ecologies, tunnelling, anarchist anthropology and the collective.
She collects tarseal crumbles and loves beach combing (if it includes a long romantic walk all the better).
Recent shows include The Metamodern in Literature, Art, Education, and Indigenous Cosmologies: An Interdisciplinary Symposium at AUT, Companion Pieces at Public Record, Māter Mater at Silo 6, National Contemporary Art Award finalists exhibitions at Waikato Museum, He Iti and Piki Mai: Up Here for mothermother at the Aotearoa Art Fair, Femisphere 4 (online), and Salted Earth at Sosage Gallery.
Tozer holds an MFA with first-class honours from the University of Auckland. During her time at Elam she received the Lightship Award which funded the presentation of an open-air 110m video work at The Ports of Auckland, was selected for a summer scholarship, an academic scholarship, the Emerging Artists Show at Sanderson Gallery and represented Elam School of Fine Arts at the Guangzhou Graduate Art Fair.
Tozer is a director at LOT23 Media which specialises in delivering high-production moving image for visual artists. LOT23 is responsible for providing the filming, editing, compositing, VFX and technical direction for some of Aotearoa’s most successful digital artists. They’ve also been involved in numerous mentoring programs and provide technical support and advice for emerging digital artists.
She is also the founder and kaitiaki of mothermother which continues to support curatorial activism for underrepresented artists since 2019.
PROJECTS & DEVELOPMENT
2019 – 2023 Founder and Organiser, mothermother artist-run project
2013 – 2023 Producer and Director, LOT23 Media + Studio
2021, 2022 National Contemporary Art Award Finalist – Waikato Museum
2022 MFA with first class honors (scholarship) Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland
2019 Summer Scholarship, Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland
2020 PGDipFA with distinction, Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland
2009, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2022 Walker and Hall Finalist – Waiheke Gallery, Auckland
2000 BFA Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland
SOLO & DUO
2021 Companion Pieces, Public Record, Auckland
2020 Salted Earth (duo show with George Turner) Sosage, Auckland
2019 Goofer Dust (duo show with Inga Fillary), Elam Project Space, Auckland
2018 Future Fossils, Grey Gallery, Auckland
2015 If this then that (duo show with James Pinker), LOT23, Auckland
2014 subject to change (duo show with Philippa Blair), LOT23, Auckland
2014 Project Installation, Corner Window curated by Rob Garrett, Auckland
2013 Punch+Black, Waiheke Gallery, Auckland
2010 Biomorphs, Satellite Gallery, Auckland
GROUP SHOWS
2023 Sub-Urban, Northart, Northcote
2023 The Metamodern in Literature, Art, Education + Indigenous Cosmologies: An Interdisciplinary Symposium
2022 Māter Mater, Silo6 Wynyard Quarter, Auckland
2021, 2022 National Contemporary Art Award, Waikato Museum
2022 He Iti, Booth D6 for mothermother Aotearoa Art Fair
2021 Femisphere 4, online
2021 Piki Mai: Up Here, Booth D5 for mothermother Aotearoa Art Fair
2020 Emerging Artists show, Sanderson Gallery, Auckland
2020 Guangzhou Graduate Art Fair
2018 Art Fair VIP event, Elam B, Auckland University
2015 Bene Commune, LOT23, curated by Stephen Bambury
2009, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2022 Walker and Hall Finalists exhibitions, Waiheke Gallery, Auckland
2013 Headland Sculpture on the Gulf (Invited Artist, Pavilion), Waiheke Island, Auckland
2012 Mysterious Room 208, Art in the Dark (Cinema Entry), Western Park, Auckland