Gwen Wanigasekera

Gwen Wanigasekera (née Hahn) was born on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island. Now based in Hamilton, she is a quiltmaker who has been practising the artform since the 1970s. In 1990, she was awarded two major awards in the ENZED Sewing Limited Nationwide Patchwork and Quilting Competition. In 1991 she received a Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council Study Grant, travelling to England to research more traditional forms of quiltmaking. This highlighted for her the stories and the history that each quilt can hold. In 2006 she completed a Masters of Social Sciences through The University of Waikato with her thesis ‘Transformations: Anthropology, Art and the Quilt.

In 2013 she completed a PhD, with the research focussed on apprenticeship learning in precision engineering, along with the practices of a number of artists and craftspeople. Title 'Cheese Machines and Cellos:Technical Craftsmen and Craft Technicians'.

Wanigasekera has works in the Waikato Museum Collection and a number of quilted textile works commissioned by the University of Waikato.

See also:

• Gwen Wanigasekera: Quilts (exhibition page, Te Tuhi contemporary art space, 1993)
• Wanigasekera, G. D., ‘Transformations: Anthropology, Art and the Quilt’ (Thesis, Master of Social Sciences (MSocSc), The University of Waikato : 2006)
• Craft New Zealand issue 37 Spring 1991