Siau-Jiun Lim creates mixed media acrylic paintings that explore landscapes, portraits, and still lifes through an embodied, process-driven approach. Growing up in Malaysia, she developed a sensitivity to colour, atmosphere, and emotion shaped by the sensory richness of tropical environments. Now based in Dunedin, New Zealand, her work reflects an evolving relationship to place and lived experience.
Her practice extends beyond traditional tools, incorporating found objects and handmade implements from natural materials. Gesture, texture, and physical movement play a central role, with painting understood as a process through which memory, time, and environment emerge rather than being directly represented.
Influenced by chaos theory and fractal logic, her work embraces repetition and variation as generative forces. Each mark is similar yet never identical, shaped by subtle shifts in movement and emotion. Complexity develops through accumulation, where small differences produce unpredictable but coherent visual outcomes.
Her recent work examines how movement, memory, emotion and habitual gestures shape the act of painting, drawing inspiration from both the natural environment and her long-term observations of creative expression among older adults. Here, simple repeated actions gradually build layered forms, reinforcing her understanding of painting as an act of controlled instability that balances intention and unpredictability.
Alongside her art practice, Siau-Jiun works as a digital product designer and holds a Master of Design focused on personal finance management and education. Her interest in systems thinking and human behaviour forms a parallel practice that remains closely connected to her art practice, shaped through observing people and environments.
Giving Back to the Trees
Every artwork purchased supports tree care initiatives in Dunedin. 10% of each sale is donated to the Tomahawk Smaills Beach Care Trust, which helps fund tree conservation, planting, and community volunteer events.
Visit Tomahawk Smaills Beach Care Trust: https://www.facebook.com/TSBCT/
Visit Tomahawk Smaills Beach Care Trust: https://www.facebook.com/TSBCT/
Total donation in 2026: $75.57
See my works at
Moray Gallery, Dunedin
https://www.moraygallery.com/
Otago Art Society
https://otagoartsociety.co.nz/
Exhibitions
Moray Gallery, Dunedin
https://www.moraygallery.com/
Otago Art Society
https://otagoartsociety.co.nz/
Exhibitions
July 2025
Together Through Art – Exhibition by seniors from Highviews, in collaboration with Siau-Jiun Lim
Together Through Art – Exhibition by seniors from Highviews, in collaboration with Siau-Jiun Lim
3-16 April 2025
Elemental—group exhibitions at the Dunedin Community Gallery
Group Exhibition at Dunedin School of Art, Dunedin, New Zealand
Take a Move 2019 - Collections from Wallace Arts Trust
Elemental—group exhibitions at the Dunedin Community Gallery
8-22 March 2024 (Solo exhibition)
Metamorphosis—The Dragon Ceremony
Ayu Community Space
November 2020
Art+Water exhibition, sciences and art collaboration project – Sinclair Wetland, HD Skinner Annex, Otago Museum
Metamorphosis—The Dragon Ceremony
Ayu Community Space
November 2020
Art+Water exhibition, sciences and art collaboration project – Sinclair Wetland, HD Skinner Annex, Otago Museum
November 2020
Dunedin Art Show, Edgar Centre
Dunedin Art Show, Edgar Centre
1-12 March 2019 (Solo exhibition)
Knowing the Anthropocene
Robert Piggott Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand
November 2019Knowing the Anthropocene
Robert Piggott Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand
Group Exhibition at Dunedin School of Art, Dunedin, New Zealand
Take a Move 2019 - Collections from Wallace Arts Trust
June 2017
St. Leonard School fundraising exhibitions, St Leonard School
Otago University students' fundraising exhibitions for Syrian refugees, Sargood Centre
St. Leonard School fundraising exhibitions, St Leonard School
Otago University students' fundraising exhibitions for Syrian refugees, Sargood Centre
November 2017
Group Exhibition at Dunedin School of Art, Dunedin, New Zealand
Group Exhibition at Dunedin School of Art, Dunedin, New Zealand
November 2017
Dunedin Art Show, Edgar Centre
Dunedin Art Show, Edgar Centre
2016
Webb Farry Lawyers' private exhibition
Webb Farry Lawyers' private exhibition
Awards
The David Con Hutton Perpetual Trust Memorial Scholarship 2017
Important collector
Collections from Wallace Arts Trust:
Alive? An Invitation to a Conversation (2017) Acrylic on canvas, 800x700mm
Take a Move (2019), Acrylic on canvas, 500x600mm
The David Con Hutton Perpetual Trust Memorial Scholarship 2017
Important collector
Collections from Wallace Arts Trust:
Alive? An Invitation to a Conversation (2017) Acrylic on canvas, 800x700mm
Take a Move (2019), Acrylic on canvas, 500x600mm
Journal
Scope 2017, art-and-design-13: Painting as a tool for enhancing humans' relationship with nature
Scope 2020, art-and-design-20: Human, you are human
Scope 2020, art-and-design-20: Human, you are human
Education
1995- 1998
Malaysian Institute School of Art
Diploma in Graphic Design (Distinction)
Malaysian Institute School of Art
Diploma in Graphic Design (Distinction)
1999-2000
Charles Sturt University, Australia
Bachelor of Art (Graphic Design), Multimedia (Distinction)
Charles Sturt University, Australia
Bachelor of Art (Graphic Design), Multimedia (Distinction)
2007-2008
Diploma in English Language
Christchurch Polytechnic Institution of Technology (Current Ara)
2008
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
Christchurch Polytechnic Institution of Technology (Current Ara)
2012 - present
Night classes at Dunedin School of Art
in life drawing, photography, darkroom, prints and ceramics
2017
Graduate Diploma of Visual Art (Distinctions)
Dunedin School of Art, New Zealand
2019
Bachelor of Honours in Visual Art
Dunedin School of Art, New Zealand
Diploma in English Language
Christchurch Polytechnic Institution of Technology (Current Ara)
2008
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
Christchurch Polytechnic Institution of Technology (Current Ara)
2012 - present
Night classes at Dunedin School of Art
in life drawing, photography, darkroom, prints and ceramics
2017
Graduate Diploma of Visual Art (Distinctions)
Dunedin School of Art, New Zealand
2019
Bachelor of Honours in Visual Art
Dunedin School of Art, New Zealand
2026
Master of Design (Thesis)
Designing for User Autonomy in Personal Finance Management
Victoria University of Wellington
Master of Design (Thesis)
Designing for User Autonomy in Personal Finance Management
Victoria University of Wellington