Multi-media and installation artist Erica van Zon undertook an artist residency to Beijing, China in 2011 as part of the Wellington Asia Residency Exchange (WARE), a partnership between Wellington City Council and Asia New Zealand.

Seven Colour Study (pink) is inspired by van Zon’s experiences in China.
She says, “My work revolves around re-creations of things that I notice around me.
I re-make objects with my own signature approach.” While in Beijing, van Zon noticed the proliferation of nail boutiques throughout the city and decided to use nail polish as a medium to create artworks. On returning to New Zealand, she continued creating nail polish paintings and introduced silkscreens as a support to for her experimental abstract works.

Erica van Zon (born 1979) is a Wellington-based artist, graduating from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland in 2007 with a Master in Fine Arts. Van Zon’s work has been included in international and national group exhibitions and at City Gallery Wellington, The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and The Dowse Art Museum. In 2007 she won the inaugural Iris Fisher scholarship at Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, Waitakere, and in 2014 she was artist-in-residence at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.