Tina Havelock Stevens: Naytcha Nuture

CASSANDRA BIRD is pleased to present Naytcha Nurture, the debut solo exhibition by Sydney-based artist Tina Havelock Stevens.

Bringing together a dynamic constellation of painting, photography, sculptural installation, video, light, and sound, Naytcha Nurture offers a compelling insight into Havelock Stevens’ expansive and multidisciplinary art practice. The exhibition explores unseen forces - emotional, environmental, and psychological that shape both the spaces we occupy and the inner terrains we navigate. Rooted in experimentation and driven by instinct, Havelock Stevens’ process-based approach builds on previous work while embracing improvisation as a path to new forms and meanings.

Working with nature and found materials as what she calls “agents of thought,” Havelock Stevens dissolves boundaries between observation and invention. Her work invites reflection on metaphor, environmental tension, and the thresholds of perception, creating space for quiet contemplation on our relationship with the world around us. The starting point for her works is often her drum kit, used variously as a musical instrument, a silenced sculptural object, or a tool for activation.

Naytcha Nurture anticipates Havelock Stevens’ upcoming solo presentation at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, part of the annual Contemporary Projects series, a major co-commission with Artspace, opening this November.

 Major recent projects include her forthcoming solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, !!, opening in November 2025; Now is a Beginning, a solo show at Bathurst Regional Gallery (2025); SONIC LUMINESCENCE at Metro Martin Place, Sydney (2024); the permanent sound installation Hear Here at Sydney Football Stadium (2022); Thank You for Holding at Carriageworks for Sydney Festival (2021); and the survey exhibition NATURE EXTEMPORIZE at The Substation, Melbourne (2021).

Havelock Stevens has exhibited and performed widely, with presentations at The National 4: Australian Art Now (MCA, 2019), Yokohama Triennale (2020), MONA FOMA (2013, 2020), Manila Biennale (2018), and Performance Space (2015, 2023), among many others.