BIOGRAPHY

Mia Straka graduated with an Honors degree in 3D Design: Jewellery, from Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland (2001). Straka’s work is exhibited regularly and has toured public institutions and galleries nationally and internationally. Works are held in the Wallace Arts Trust Collection (NZ).

As one of three partners in Auckland jewellery studio Workshop6, Straka teaches jewellery classes alongside continuing to evolve her own contemporary jewellery practice. From 2020-2022 the artist is a participant on the HandShake programme, provoking creative development and endeavour.

Since 2012 Straka’s practice has grown to encompass creating and facilitating community art projects, workshops, installations, videos, larger scale sculptural works and objects, as an extension of contemporary jewellery. Notable examples are The Valere Talisman Project (est. 2017) and The Talisman Project (est. 2014). Straka has undertaken Art residencies in Berlin, Germany 2018 and Oaxaca, Mexico 2014.

A commitment to social and environmental issues drive Straka’s practice and are visible through her conscious use of materials, processes, content, collaboration, interactivity and accessibility. Recent work translates personal data from daily drawings into experimental adornment and object, exploring the space where rationality and intuition collide.

On recent work-

‘I’m interested in how we experience and record time; how we might move within past, present and future; and the potential of jewellery to act as catalyst, conduit and communicator in this realm. Might we reclaim our personal data and subvert it into adornment?’

Bio/CV

Ngā mihi nui,

Mia Straka