Aina Apse (25 March 1926 – 24 February 2015) was a New Zealand potter. Her work is held in the permanent collections of Canterbury Museum and

Christchurch Art Gallery The Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, commonly known as the Christchurch Art Gallery, is the public art gallery of the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. It has its own substantial art collection and also presents a programme of New ...

Biography

Apse was born in

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

. She and her family escaped to Germany in 1944 when the Soviet Union invaded Latvia, and in 1949 Apse, her husband and their son emigrated to New Zealand. The family was initially placed in a camp at

Pahiatua Pahiatua () is a rural service town in the south-eastern North Island of New Zealand with a population of . It is between Masterton and Woodville, New Zealand, Woodville on New Zealand State Highway 2, State Highway 2 and along the Wairarapa Lin ...

, then moved to the East Coast, Napier and later to

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

. In 1965, Apse joined a night class in pottery and in the 1970s and 1980s she exhibited her work and won some local prizes. Apse was married and had two children: a son born in Europe and a daughter born in New Zealand. She divorced her husband in 1965. Apse died in February 2015.

References

1926 births 2015 deaths 20th-century Latvian women artists 20th-century Latvian artists 21st-century Latvian women artists 21st-century Latvian artists 20th-century New Zealand women artists 21st-century New Zealand women artists Latvian emigrants to New Zealand New Zealand potters {{NewZealand-artist-stub