A Christchurch abstract painter has been named a top 10 finalist in the People’s Choice Award at the NZ Art Show 2026, with a large-scale work exploring the unseen labour of domestic life.

Kate McLeod’s painting Wax Off. Wax On. was selected by the NZ Art Show Board of Directors from hundreds of entries for its ability to create connection and resonate emotionally with audiences. The winner receives a $3,000 prize, decided by public vote across King’s Birthday Weekend.

Now in her fifth year exhibiting at the show, McLeod’s selection places her alongside some of New Zealand’s leading contemporary artists. The work measures 1255 x 1555 x 60mm and forms part of her new series, The Invisible Load, created exclusively for the 2026 show.

The series uses cleaning tools including mops, brushes, cloths and sponges as painting instruments, turning acts of domestic maintenance into layered visual records of effort and repetition. Rather than romanticising domestic labour, the work focuses on the materiality of that labour itself, revealing the quiet force within repetition and the physical evidence of work that is usually expected to disappear.

“Objects designed to erase marks are instead used to create them,” McLeod said. “The work explores repetition, accumulation, and the physical traces of labour that often goes unseen and unrecognised.”

McLeod said the structure of the paintings deliberately reflected the rhythms of domestic work.

“The paintings are built through accumulation rather than single gestures,” she said. “That structure reflects the rhythms of domestic labour, cyclical, ongoing, and without a clear endpoint. The power in that isn’t loud or dramatic, it’s in persistence.”

She said paintings needed to be seen in person to be fully appreciated.

“A screen can never truly hold the weight, texture, or presence of a work of art,” she said.

NZ Art Show Executive Director Carla Russell said the People’s Choice Award recognised work that left a lasting impression.

“It’s about the work that stops people in their tracks,” Russell said. “The piece they keep thinking about. The one that creates conversation or emotion or curiosity.”

McLeod works full-time from her studio in Ilam. Her paintings are held in private collections across New Zealand and internationally, including the United States, China and the United Kingdom. In 2023 she represented New Zealand as a keynote speaker and exhibiting artist at the Liangzhou Forum.

The NZ Art Show runs from Friday May 29 to Sunday May 31 at TSB Arena on the Wellington waterfront, featuring more than 200 artists and over 4000 original works. McLeod will be present throughout the weekend.