Föenander Galleries Director Elle Föenander has been featured in Sauce magazine in an intimate interview exploring her journey as a gallerist, her approach to art and collecting, and the personal influences that have shaped her distinctive perspective.
Written by Sauce founder Zeenat Wilkinson, the feature offers a glimpse into the person behind Föenander Galleries, exploring everything from Elle’s early encounters with art to her personal style, inspirations and evolving view of the international art world.
Described by Sauce as the founder and driving force behind Föenander Galleries, Elle established the Auckland gallery in 2018 with a focus on discovering and supporting contemporary artists. Since then, the gallery has developed a diverse programme of artists alongside a range of emerging and established artists and off-site projects.
A lifelong relationship with art
Reflecting on her journey into the art world, Elle traces her path through a series of formative moments rather than a single defining decision.
Among them are seeing a drawing of her father at the age of three, receiving a set of watercolour paints at five, and encountering Yayoi Kusama’s Narcissus Garden at QAGOMA when she was 15. She also recalls a note from her art teacher at 17 and, eventually, making the decision at 30 to leave her career in property and establish her own gallery.
Together, these moments reveal a relationship with art that began long before Elle entered the gallery world professionally - one rooted in curiosity, observation and an instinctive response to creative work.
When asked when she first began to trust her own taste, Elle responds with characteristic humour: “When I turned 4, verified by my mother.”
The answer captures something central to her approach: confidence in one's own response to art does not necessarily come from a set of rules or qualifications, but from developing the ability to recognise what genuinely resonates.
Trusting the connection
For Elle, the relationship between an artist and their work is often inseparable. When asked how much an artist’s personality influences her evaluation of their work, she explains that the two are frequently intrinsically connected.
She describes the artists she works with through qualities she sees reflected in their practices, including Jess Swney as “considered” and “extraordinary”, Anton Forde as “true” and “magnificent”, Vishmi Helaratne as “intelligent” and “powerful”, Andy Leleisi’uao as “meticulous” and “abundant”, and Nick Herd as “sincere” and “captivating”.
It is an approach that reflects the deeply personal nature of Elle’s role as a gallerist. While art can be discussed through movements, markets and critical frameworks, her response begins with the work itself and the connection it creates.
This philosophy extends to collecting. Elle encourages collectors to buy works that evoke a response - whether that response is immediately positive or even uncomfortable. Living with a work that initially challenges you, she suggests, can become an opportunity to reconsider your own perceptions.
Sometimes, however, the decision is much simpler. As she puts it, “buy work you like.”
She describes knowing almost immediately when a work is something she has to have, a response driven by that same instinctive connection.
Discovering new voices
The interview also highlights Elle’s enthusiasm for discovering artists and developing long-term relationships with their practices. Among her recent discoveries, she discusses Monica Rani Rudhar, whose work she encountered before presenting her at the 2025 Aotearoa Art Fair. Rudhar’s practice explores her tri-cultural identity, informed by her Indian and Romanian heritage and experience growing up in Australia.
For Elle, Rudhar’s work resonates personally, particularly in the way the artist navigates multiple cultural influences through her practice. It is an example of the kind of artistic voice that continues to interest Elle - work that carries a strong personal perspective while opening up broader conversations around identity and cultural difference.
A changing art world
The Sauce interview also touches on the wider changes taking place within the international art world. Elle points to the growing movement towards the repatriation of artworks and cultural objects to their countries and communities of origin. She describes this as an important response to the historical removal of Indigenous treasures and culturally significant objects from their rightful communities.
For Elle, the movement represents an opportunity to acknowledge historical loss, address past injustices and restore dignity - reflecting a broader shift in the art world towards greater consideration of provenance, ownership and cultural responsibility.
Beyond the gallery
While the interview explores Elle’s professional life, Sauce also offers insight into the personal style and interests that sit alongside her work. Asked to describe her style, Elle sums it up as “Bourgeois-bohème”, combining fine art with a collection of foraged rocks, stilettos with something recycled.
Her cultural interests extend from art into literature and the natural world. She describes a particular fascination with birds, inspired by a book gifted to her by a friend. Their presence across the myths and stories of different cultures - often as messengers connecting the earthly and divine - is part of what makes them so compelling to her.
Currently accompanying her is a pocket edition of Rumi, which she keeps in her handbag.
These details offer a glimpse into the broader sensibility that informs Elle’s work as a gallerist: an appreciation for art and culture that extends beyond the gallery itself and into everyday life.
Through its portrait of Elle, Sauce captures a gallerist whose approach is grounded as much in instinct, curiosity and personal connection as it is in professional expertise. Her story is one of a lifelong relationship with art that eventually evolved into a gallery - and a continuing commitment to discovering artists whose work offers something worth stopping to look at.
Click here to read the full interview with Elle Föenander in Sauce magazine.
Interview by Zeenat Wilkinson. Portraits by Yana Kulishenko. Interior photography by Sam Hartnett.