About

Sophie Drury (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Ranginui, P̄ākehā) is an early-career Takatāpui artist curator based in Tāmaki Makarau. They work with a variety of materials and mediums to conceptualise their work, with focus on painting. They use mediums such as dyes, oil pastels, and oil paints. Their art draws heavily on oral traditions, such as fables, fairy tales, and similar stories, focusing on the recurring tropes within these stories and reinterpreting them in a painted form. They explore the significance of storytelling as a medium and how it can be revitalised through the act of exploration and reimagining in a contemporary context.

Education:

Bachelor of Fine Arts (2025) at Elam, University of Auckland

Selected Exhibitions:

• Elam Artists Graduate Show (2025)
• Queer Pictures: 40th Anniversary, Elam Project Space, Auckland (2025)
• Intaglio, Relief, Planar, Elam Project Space, Auckland (2025)
• Seeing & Knowing, Elam Project Space, Auckland (2025)

Awards:

• Gordon Harris Art Supplies Prize (2026)

Press/Text:

• Various Artists w/ Sof and Maya: the Elam Graduate Show Special, Interview, 2025
• Delve, Ophis Press, publication (2025)