Stella Corkery

Stella Corkery (born 1960) is a New Zealand visual artist and drummer, born in Tuatapere, New Zealand. Corkery's work is experimental and reflective, often commenting on contemporary ideas. She currently lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand.

Education
Corkery attended the Elam School of Fine Art (University of Auckland) where she received a BFA (Hons) First Class Honors in 2012 and Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in 2013.

Visual art
Corkery's paintings use traditional processes, such as oils, although she doesn't restrict herself to a particular style. Her visual works include Smoke and Butterfly (2015) and Gas Light (2015).

In 2013 Corkery was selected to be part of the exhibition Freedom Farmers: New Zealand Artists Growing Ideas at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki. This exhibition showcased twenty New Zealand contemporary artists from various media, reflecting on concept such as utopia, sustainability, and artistic freedom.

Corkery's recent exhibitions in New Zealand include: Necessary Distraction: a painting show (Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, 2015, with Saskia Leek, Julian Hooper, Nicola Farquhar, Kirstin Carlin, and James Cousins); Porous Moonlight (Papakura Art Gallery, 2013); and Episodic Nomadic (Gloria Knight, Auckland, 2013). She has held several exhibitions at the Michael Lett gallery including: Theme for a Science Fiction Vampire (2017), Sparks (2015), Kicking Against The Pricks (2014), and a joint show with Jim Allen & Dan Arps (2016). Corkery has also exhibited outside New Zealand including Caravan (2014) at the Station Gallery in Melbourne, Australia, Patches (2017) and Keep Smiling the Boss Loves Idiots (2016), at Poppy's in New York, USA.

Music
Corkery is a self-taught drummer and has been involved in the underground music scene since the late 1980s. She has been part of experimental, noise and lo-fi bands including Angelhead, Queen Meanie Puss, and White Saucer. Her first band, The Pleats, was formed in Dunedin around 1980 with Rachel Shearer (Lovely Midget, which Corkery was also a member of) and Debbie Hinden (Indigo Underworld).

Labels
In the early 1990s she started the Pink Air and Girl Alliance record labels with her partner Alan Holt. Both labels were created to support musicians in Auckland, with The Pink Air label focusing experimental and psychedelic music and Girl Alliance part of the riot grrrl movement.