>ARTIST'S BIOGRAPHY
Deborah Moss works from her countryside studios in Wainui, North Auckland. Drawing upon the dynamism of her rural surroundings, she translates her environment to her artworks creating poetic expressions, energetic gestures and stories that reveal a powerful alchemy of forces between the natural world and her interior vision.
Her approach to painting is process driven – a sensory experience which encourages the work to develop on its own accord through rich layers of paint and response to surface discoveries.
After graduating from the University of Auckland with a double major Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Sociology and a MA (Hons) degree in Sociology, Deborah worked as a journalist and then in the visual arts as Director of a Fine Art gallery in Auckland. Her passion for developing her own practice led her to complete several arts education courses including the Creative Visionary Mentoring Program facilitated by established artist and art teacher Nicholas Wilton (USA, 2018/2019).
The artist exhibits regularly in New Zealand and Australia and her works are in private national and international collections. She was the supreme winner of the 2022 Craigs Investment Partners Prize (Wanaka) and has been a finalist in other national art awards including: The Molly Morpeth Canaday Award 2025 (Whakatāne); the 2022 National Contemporary Art Award (Waikato Museum); Parkin Drawing Prize (Wellington, 2022); Walker and Hall Waiheke 2-D Art Awards (2023/2021/2020 Auckland); the New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Award (Hamilton, 2020); and Fieldays No. 8 Wire National Art Award, (ArtsPost/Waikato Museum, 2016.)
Every time Deborah sells an original artwork a native tree is planted on her rural property as part of her “Planting hope” initiative to help the environment.
>RECENT ART EDUCATION
Exploring abstraction - online course with US-based abstract artist and teacher Jenny Nelson. 2020.
Perfectly Imperfect - discovering your visual language online 12-week programme with multi-media Australian artist and teacher Lorna Crane. 2020.
May 2020 – Graduate of The Artist's Mindset : Group Coaching Program offered by Insight Creative Coaching. This 12-week intensive online Programme focuses on the development of mindset skills and practices that strengthen and deepen an artist's ability to envision and create their art.
Graduate of the "Creative Visionary Mentoring Program" facilitated by established artist and art teacher Nicholas Wilton (USA), 2018/2019.
>AWARDS
Finalist Walker & Hall Waiheke Art Award 2023, Waiheke Community Art Gallery, Oct 27 - Dec 10, 2023.
Finalist Parkin Drawing Prize 2022, The New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, Wellington,
August 2 - September 11, 2022.
Finalist National Contemporary Art Award, Waikato Museum Te Whare Taonga o Waikato, Hamilton, August 6 - November 13, 2022.
Supreme Winner 2022 Craigs Investment Partners Prize, Holy Family Catholic School, Wanaka,
January 15 - 18, 2022.
Finalist Walker & Hall Waiheke 2-D Art Award, Waiheke Community Art Gallery, November, 2021.
Finalist Walker & Hall Waiheke 2-D Art Award, Waiheke Community Art Gallery, October, 2020.
Finalist The New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Award, The Atrium, Wintec, Hamilton, October 2020.
Finalist Craigs Aspiring Art Prize, Holy Family Catholic School, Wanaka, January 10 - 14, 2020.
Finalist Members' Merit Exhibition & Awards 2017; Lake House Arts, Takapuna, Auckland.
Finalist Fieldays No. 8 Wire National Art Award, ArtsPost/Waikato Museum, 2016.
>AFFILIATIONS
Member of The Eco-Artists' Directory - The Visionary Projects (a multi-media contemporary art platform and community inspired by consciously-driven projects), NYC • Berlin • Vienna
>PUBLICATIONS/PUBLICITY
Review "Tracks and Traces, Deborah Moss", by Laura Elliott, Art Seen Otago Daily Times, Oct 24, 2024.
New & Abstract Art Radar artist interview series 'Five questions to Deborah Moss'.
Review "Happenstance: Tales From New Land, Deborah Moss" by Laura Elliott, Art Seen Otago daily Times, December 1, 2022.
Artist profile: 'Second Nature: Deborah Moss is called to translate what she sees outside into abstract art". Homestyle Magazine, Oct/Nov issue, 2022.
Active observations - online interview with Aesthetica Magazine, February 1, 2022.
'Glowing Again wins grand prize at art awards' by Marjorie Cook, Otago Daily Times, January 17, 2022.
'Glow up' article highlighting Craig's Investment Partners Prize painting, Style Magazine, February 2022.
'Auckland Artist Takes Supreme Award At Craigs Aspiring Art Prize in Wanaka', Scoop Regional Independent News, January 16, 2022.
Artwork featured as murals in hotel rooms of The Central Hotel by Naumi Hotels, Queenstown, New Zealand. A collaboration with Undercurrent Studio (Wanaka).
The Hotel Conversation: 'Creative and Cool: The Central by Naumi Hotels, Queenstown, New Zealand'.
April 5, 2021
'Avoiding Enfeeblement' - a review of The New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Award 2020 by Peter Dornauf, EyeContact (October 10, 2020).
Featured in favourite new works selected by Saatchi Art’s Chief Curator Rebecca Wilson, January 2019.
Stir creativity - a review of the 'Mixology event' at Comet Project Space by Jodi Meadows, 2019.
Featured Natural curiosities: Inspired by the Outdoors’ on-line collection curated by Victoria Kennedy, Associate Curator at Saatchi Art, 2019
Art Edit Australian magazine (Winter issue) 2019 "Love it - ones to watch" feature.
Featured artist interview in Creative Ripple Magazine (NZ); January, 2018.
Guest blogger Parkin Drawing Prize website, April 17, 2017.
Māori Television - Interview on Māori News January 20, 2016 discussing sculpture in the Under Kaipara Skies 2016 sculpture exhibition featuring NZ and international artists at Kaipara Coast Sculpture Gardens, Auckland.
Artist Interview, Quirky Fox Gallery, Hawera (Taranaki), September 2016.
(wo)manpower - Interviews with 10 New Zealand women who are leading creative lives, following their dreams and inspiring others every day. Zine edited by ZR Southcombe, First edition November 2015.
Deborah Moss works from her countryside studios in Wainui, North Auckland. Drawing upon the dynamism of her rural surroundings, she translates her environment to her artworks creating poetic expressions, energetic gestures and stories that reveal a powerful alchemy of forces between the natural world and her interior vision.
Her approach to painting is process driven – a sensory experience which encourages the work to develop on its own accord through rich layers of paint and response to surface discoveries.
After graduating from the University of Auckland with a double major Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Sociology and a MA (Hons) degree in Sociology, Deborah worked as a journalist and then in the visual arts as Director of a Fine Art gallery in Auckland. Her passion for developing her own practice led her to complete several arts education courses including the Creative Visionary Mentoring Program facilitated by established artist and art teacher Nicholas Wilton (USA, 2018/2019).
The artist exhibits regularly in New Zealand and Australia and her works are in private national and international collections. She was the supreme winner of the 2022 Craigs Investment Partners Prize (Wanaka) and has been a finalist in other national art awards including: The Molly Morpeth Canaday Award 2025 (Whakatāne); the 2022 National Contemporary Art Award (Waikato Museum); Parkin Drawing Prize (Wellington, 2022); Walker and Hall Waiheke 2-D Art Awards (2023/2021/2020 Auckland); the New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Award (Hamilton, 2020); and Fieldays No. 8 Wire National Art Award, (ArtsPost/Waikato Museum, 2016.)
Every time Deborah sells an original artwork a native tree is planted on her rural property as part of her “Planting hope” initiative to help the environment.
>RECENT ART EDUCATION
Exploring abstraction - online course with US-based abstract artist and teacher Jenny Nelson. 2020.
Perfectly Imperfect - discovering your visual language online 12-week programme with multi-media Australian artist and teacher Lorna Crane. 2020.
May 2020 – Graduate of The Artist's Mindset : Group Coaching Program offered by Insight Creative Coaching. This 12-week intensive online Programme focuses on the development of mindset skills and practices that strengthen and deepen an artist's ability to envision and create their art.
Graduate of the "Creative Visionary Mentoring Program" facilitated by established artist and art teacher Nicholas Wilton (USA), 2018/2019.
>AWARDS
Finalist Walker & Hall Waiheke Art Award 2023, Waiheke Community Art Gallery, Oct 27 - Dec 10, 2023.
Finalist Parkin Drawing Prize 2022, The New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, Wellington,
August 2 - September 11, 2022.
Finalist National Contemporary Art Award, Waikato Museum Te Whare Taonga o Waikato, Hamilton, August 6 - November 13, 2022.
Supreme Winner 2022 Craigs Investment Partners Prize, Holy Family Catholic School, Wanaka,
January 15 - 18, 2022.
Finalist Walker & Hall Waiheke 2-D Art Award, Waiheke Community Art Gallery, November, 2021.
Finalist Walker & Hall Waiheke 2-D Art Award, Waiheke Community Art Gallery, October, 2020.
Finalist The New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Award, The Atrium, Wintec, Hamilton, October 2020.
Finalist Craigs Aspiring Art Prize, Holy Family Catholic School, Wanaka, January 10 - 14, 2020.
Finalist Members' Merit Exhibition & Awards 2017; Lake House Arts, Takapuna, Auckland.
Finalist Fieldays No. 8 Wire National Art Award, ArtsPost/Waikato Museum, 2016.
>AFFILIATIONS
Member of The Eco-Artists' Directory - The Visionary Projects (a multi-media contemporary art platform and community inspired by consciously-driven projects), NYC • Berlin • Vienna
>PUBLICATIONS/PUBLICITY
Review "Tracks and Traces, Deborah Moss", by Laura Elliott, Art Seen Otago Daily Times, Oct 24, 2024.
New & Abstract Art Radar artist interview series 'Five questions to Deborah Moss'.
Review "Happenstance: Tales From New Land, Deborah Moss" by Laura Elliott, Art Seen Otago daily Times, December 1, 2022.
Artist profile: 'Second Nature: Deborah Moss is called to translate what she sees outside into abstract art". Homestyle Magazine, Oct/Nov issue, 2022.
Active observations - online interview with Aesthetica Magazine, February 1, 2022.
'Glowing Again wins grand prize at art awards' by Marjorie Cook, Otago Daily Times, January 17, 2022.
'Glow up' article highlighting Craig's Investment Partners Prize painting, Style Magazine, February 2022.
'Auckland Artist Takes Supreme Award At Craigs Aspiring Art Prize in Wanaka', Scoop Regional Independent News, January 16, 2022.
Artwork featured as murals in hotel rooms of The Central Hotel by Naumi Hotels, Queenstown, New Zealand. A collaboration with Undercurrent Studio (Wanaka).
The Hotel Conversation: 'Creative and Cool: The Central by Naumi Hotels, Queenstown, New Zealand'.
April 5, 2021
'Avoiding Enfeeblement' - a review of The New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Award 2020 by Peter Dornauf, EyeContact (October 10, 2020).
Featured in favourite new works selected by Saatchi Art’s Chief Curator Rebecca Wilson, January 2019.
Stir creativity - a review of the 'Mixology event' at Comet Project Space by Jodi Meadows, 2019.
Featured Natural curiosities: Inspired by the Outdoors’ on-line collection curated by Victoria Kennedy, Associate Curator at Saatchi Art, 2019
Art Edit Australian magazine (Winter issue) 2019 "Love it - ones to watch" feature.
Featured artist interview in Creative Ripple Magazine (NZ); January, 2018.
Guest blogger Parkin Drawing Prize website, April 17, 2017.
Māori Television - Interview on Māori News January 20, 2016 discussing sculpture in the Under Kaipara Skies 2016 sculpture exhibition featuring NZ and international artists at Kaipara Coast Sculpture Gardens, Auckland.
Artist Interview, Quirky Fox Gallery, Hawera (Taranaki), September 2016.
(wo)manpower - Interviews with 10 New Zealand women who are leading creative lives, following their dreams and inspiring others every day. Zine edited by ZR Southcombe, First edition November 2015.
Photo by Larnie Nicolson