Designer Spotlight: Bobbie Gray

For artist Bobbie Gray, creativity is both a lifelong instinct and a purposeful practice rooted in sustainability. Working across sculpture, moving image, painting, and installation, Bobbie is best known for transforming recycled, hand‑cut single‑use plastic bottles into luminous large‑scale works that challenge how we see everyday materials. 

Discover what drives her process, what keeps her experimenting, and which creations have meant the most along the way.

Can you share a brief introduction about yourself?

I’m a multidisciplinary artist from New Zealand, working across sculpture, moving image, painting, and installation. I’m best known for creating large-scale installations that transform recycled hand-cut single-use plastic bottles into large scale light-based works.

I graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Whitecliffe College of Arts & Design in 2017, and my practice sits at the intersection of art, sustainability, and community. A lot of my work is driven by a commitment to rethinking materials and exploring our relationship with the natural world.

Alongside my art practice, I work in marketing and communications at EcoMatters, an environmental charity in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. That role keeps me connected to conversations around sustainability, waste reduction, and material innovation, which continue to influence and inspire the way I approach my creative work.

What inspired you to become an artist?

I’ve been creating for as long as I can remember. My dad could make anything out of anything, and my granny had her own kiln, we’d spend school holidays making clay sculptures together. I was always drawing or painting, and even when I was working full-time, I kept side projects on the go. There’s just this innate desire to create that I think I was born with.

After travelling overseas for a couple of years, I realised I didn’t want to come back and do a job that didn’t fuel my soul. That’s when I decided to go to art school and really make a go of it.

What are your primary sources of inspiration, both personally and professionally?

Nature has always been my biggest source of inspiration, it might sound cliché, but it’s true. I’m best known for my plastic bottle flower works, but more recently I’ve been drawn to the forms and structures of coral and fungi as well.

I’m also deeply inspired by materiality. A lot of my ideas come from the offcuts or leftovers of previous artworks. I love taking something and using it in a way it was never intended for, giving it new life. That part of the process is the most exciting for me, because it means developing something entirely new, a process that’s unique to my practice.

Light is another big inspiration. Reflections, shadows, the way light can transform a simple object into something alive and extraordinary, that transformation continues to fuel my work.

How do you experiment with different mediums and techniques within your design process?

Experimentation is a big part of my process. There’s a lot of hand-cutting involved, followed by heating plastic with tools ranging from a small heat gun to a sandwich press. The material has a life of its own once you start melting it; some pieces curl in, others roll out, and part of the creative process is working with that unpredictability to discover new forms.

I create many small prototypes to test ideas, especially around how light interacts with the material. Light can completely transform the work, and I often use colour as a way to diffuse or filter it, adding another layer of depth.

Sustainability is always front of mind too. In the past, I’ve used spray paint, but I’ve been exploring new ways to introduce colour while reducing environmental impact and keeping the translucency of the plastic. That ongoing experimentation with process and materials is at the heart of my practice.

Could you highlight any projects you’re particularly proud of?

I recently created 48 flowers that were sold individually at Sculpture on the Shore with Lara Thomas as part of Comet Collab. It was the first time we had sold stems this way. I also created 2‑metre‑tall flowers for Kaipara Sculpture Gardens based on the Echium fastuosum that grow in the gardens there.