Rhys Hall

Rhys Hall is a jewellery and object maker based in Kawatiri/Westport on the West Coast of the South Island. Graduating in 2002 with a Diploma in Jade & Hard Stone Carving (Merit) from Tai Poutini Polytechnic Greymouth, Rhys has exhibited within NZ and internationally at galleries including Form, Fingers, CoCA and Metalab, often as part of the Coast-Garde collective (a collaborative group of alumni from the Tai Poutini carving course) and has also designed and created jewellery for 3 international TV series produced in NZ.

Rhys works predominantly in stone, with a focus on material sourced from West Coast beaches and rivers. The contemplative nature of fossicking and the connection to the environment provides inspiration and respite from an increasingly turbulent world. From the ubiquitous onewa/greywacke pebble - found almost everywhere in the South Island, and most commonly quarried and crushed into road chip - to Pounamu, Pakohe, Carnelian and Jasper, these stones are often combined with wood, shell or glass components or laminated together to create harmonious composites. Rhys's aesthetic is informed by traditional adornment forms of Aotearoa and the wider Pacific, abstract modernist and minmalist art and design, and the 'Stone, Bone & Shell' generation of 20th century Aotearoa stone carvers.