ARTIST STATEMENT

Amber Kingi is a self-taught artist based on the Gold Coast, Queensland. Her intuitive and experimental approach results in work that is both beautiful and joyful. Kingi has built a visual language that is immediate, disarming, and unmistakably her own—one that privileges process over prescription and discovery over dogma.

Working intuitively, Kingi approaches the canvas as a site of exploration. Her methodology is process-led and deliberately open-ended: sketches unfurl into chromatic studies; colour palettes mutate; textures accumulate and recede. What begins as play often resolves into compositions of surprising psychological depth. Layers are built and disrupted. Surfaces are scraped back and reimagined. The evidence of making remains visible—an archaeology of decisions that gives her work vitality and pulse.

Colour is central to Kingi’s vocabulary. Drawing inspiration from the luminosity of coastal Queensland, she constructs vivid, immersive environments where pinks vibrate, blues hum, and unexpected tonal pairings create emotional resonance. These palettes are not arbitrary; they are structural. They anchor the narrative, directing mood and movement across the canvas. Texture, too, plays a pivotal role. Her signature layered application creates dimensional surfaces that invite close viewing, revealing subtleties that contrast with the immediate exuberance of her compositions.

Kingi’s evolution as an artist has been marked by increasing ambition in scale and narrative complexity. Each body of work pushes against the boundaries of the previous one—figures becoming more psychologically nuanced, compositions more daring in their spatial logic. Despite this growth, she retains the spontaneity that first defined her practice: an insistence on freedom, on experimentation, on remaining porous to new influences.

Among her achievements, Kingi was a finalist in both the Fenton & Fenton Gallery Rising Talent Award and Morris Art Prize Exhibition. Additionally, her work “Fern Street” was acquired by the Gold Coast City Council for the HOTA gallery’s private collection.

Amber Kingi stands as a testament to the power of self-determined practice. Her work is joyful yet incisive, playful yet perceptive. In a field often governed by theory and tradition, Kingi reminds us that instinct—when rigorously pursued—can be its own form of scholarship.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2025 Sundays Are For Peopling, 19 Karen Contemporary Artspace, Mermaid Beach
2024 St Hilda Art Festival, St Hilda’s School, Gold Coast QLD
2023 Adorn, 19 Karen Contemporary Artspace, Mermaid Beach
2022 Affordable Art Fair Melbourne, Fenton & Fenton, Melbourne VIC
2022 Toowoomba Grammar Art Show, Toowoomba QLD
2021 F*ck COVID, Fenton & Fenton, Melbourne VIC
2021 Sultry Scenes, 19 Karen Contemporary Artspace, Mermaid Beach
2019 Everyday People, Currumbin RSL, Currumbin QLD
2018 Bloom, DBar House, Coolangatta QLD
2018 Garden Utopia, Art Shelter, Kingscliff NSW
2018 Artist In Residence, Burleigh Brewing, Burleigh QLD
2017 Tribal,  DBar House, Coolangatta QLD
2016 Wild, DBar House, Coolangatta QLD

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS/FESTIVALS

2024 The Affordable Art Fair, Brisbane, QLD
2022 Toowoomba Grammar Art Show, Toowoomba QLD
2021 Fuck Covid, Fenton & Fenton, Melbourne VIC
2021 Toowoomba Grammar Art Show, Toowoomba QLD
2020 Small Works Exhibition, Fenton & Fenton, Melbourne VIC
2020 Here With Me, Curatorial & Co, Redfern NSW
2019 Threesome International Group Show, 19 Karen Gallery, Mermaid Beach QLD, AUS
2018 Morris Art Prize Exhibition, Events Arena, Carrara QLD
2018 Street Art Battle, Sand Safari Arts Festival, Surfers Paradise QLD
2018 We Are Gold Coast, HOTA, Surfers Paradise QLD
2018 Daisy Went Crazy Festival, Gold Coast QLD
2016 Trailblazing Women of Herstory, Melbourne VIC
2015 Colours of Melbourne, Melbourne VIC
2015 Magnus 600, Magnus Collective, Melbourne VIC
2015 RAW, Byron Bay NSW
2014 RAW, Gold Coast QLD

ACHIEVEMENTS/AWARDS/AQUISITIONS

2020 Completed a 2-month Artist Residency, 19 Karen Contemporary Artspace, Mermaid Beach
2020 Finalist – Fenton & Fenton Rising Talent
2018 Highly Commended – The Morris Art Prize
2018 Aquisition – ‘Fern Street’ purchased by HOTA for their private collection
2018 Finalist – Border Art Prize
2018 Finalist – Moreton Bay Regional Council Art Prize
2018 Finalist – Brisbane Rotary Art Spectacular
2015 Finalist – Brisbane Rotary Art Spectacular
2015 Finalist – Border Art Prize
2015 Finalist – Lions Garden City Art Extravaganza