Crown Lands

Frances Hansen was born in New Zealand in 1962. From 1979 to 1992 she was a resident in Australia. During this time Hansen completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts and a Graduate Diploma in Professional Art Studies, from City Art Institute in Sydney. Hansen then went on to complete a Diploma of Teaching from the University of Sydney. Returning to Auckland at the beginning of 1993, Hansen gained a Master of Fine Arts first class honours at Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland. Since her return to New Zealand Hansen has exhibited regularly in both group and solo shows. She has been involved in tertiary education for a number of years and is Programme Leader for Drawing and Senior Lecturer in Painting at the School of Visual Arts, Auckland University at Manukau. Hansen usually works in oil and acrylic on canvas. Her painterly abstract approach contains elements of recognizable imagery. Some ideas she has worked with recently are to do with environmentalism. Her paintings hint at ideas to do with cultivation and choice made within this field, global warming, ozone holes, division of land, farming, hybrids, genetic engineering and organics. Hansen often uses found objects and images with a 1960s sense of aesthetic. Often these resources result in a series of small works incorporating a variety of media, which in turn, generate ideas for larger works. Hansen currently shows in Auckland as well as being consistently involved in group shows and other artists projects.