Announcing our Summer/Pride Time & Space resident - Venus!
We’re beyond thrilled to announce our first Time & Space Recipient for 2026! Introducing the incomparable visionary and creative, Venus a.k.a Venus Blacklaws as our Summer/Pride Time & Space Resident for this season!
Venus J. Iosua Blacklaws is a Tāmaki Makaurau-based artist in constant flux between the white gallery cube and the stage, working across painting, performance, theatre, and queer nightlife. Centring itself within and around the Body, and the illusion of Self, Venus’s practice draws from surrealist and drag aesthetics and conventions to unravel and re-present narratives of sex, gender, and mythology into a single embodied language.
Informed by research into the queer histories of Karangahape Road, their work manifests from the sexualisation and perception of the (de)gendered body as a site of spectacle and agency.
Recent showings include Opulent Oddities (NZFW, 2025), 15 Minutes of Fame (Plomacy, 2025), Flesh or Wound (Basement Theatre, 2025), Cirque Du Killing: Feast (COCA, 2024), and Imaginary Friends (Toi o Tāmaki, 2024).
During their time with us, Venus is looking to the theatre as a space to unravel where embodiment meets narrative meets ritual. Basement will serve as a site to explore their lineage, both blood and chosen, and where grief and the divine androgyne might intersect and move through them to reveal the Mother’s presence within their (em)Body(ments).
We’re incredibly excited to have Venus join us for a week of incubation in late March as our first resident of the year!
If you’re curious about our residency offerings for the year, our submissions for our Winter/Matariki Time & Space resident are still open, closing on Monday, 23rd February, 11:59pm. Head here for the submission link and further information.
