Suzi Stevens

With Antony growing up in Christchurch, a move back to the South Island was always on the cards, but after the ninth year of visits, a friend mentioned that the owners of Nelson’s RED Art Gallery & Café were thinking of selling.

The couple were curious. Antony, who was working for TVNZ, was ready for a change, and both were keen to try new challenges. On the last day of their trip, they popped into Red on the way to the airport and were immediately taken by its beautiful heritage building.

Suzi, who is originally from Liverpool, says it felt “very familiar, very European”. Both felt drawn to the idea of moving to Nelson. Suzi, an artist who had also worked in design stores across Auckland, felt RED was perfect for her, while Antony was keen to look after the café side of things and hatched a plan to introduce locals to Al Brown’s Best Ugly Bagels.

“It was crazy – my husband just forged ahead, talked to the owners, and they were ready for a change, and it just fitted in perfectly,” Suzi says. “We haven’t looked back. It’s been a whirlwind, but I just love it. Coming back to the South Island felt like coming back home.”  

They inherited around 30 artists with the gallery, many of whom they still support today. The bagels were an immediate hit in the café and have remained popular ever since. 

Five years later, with Fenna and Beau now in their teens, Suzi is getting back into pottery and still adores being in the gallery every day, surrounded by inspiration and creativity. 

Previous owner Caroline Marshall had told them to sell things they like and felt good about, and Suzi says that hasn’t been a problem with the depth of artistic talent in the region and around New Zealand. She says being in Nelson has “absolutely inspired me”. 

“It is so creative here. We have a real mix of Nelson artists and those from around the country,” she says.  

“I’ve lived in Christchurch, Wellington, Auckland, and now Nelson and Nelson really does have that creative feel to it.

“There is so much going on; you can tell by the amount of galleries around, and events like Nelson Clay Week, Night Vision and the Nelson Arts Festival. People are inspired and it’s all walkable.  

“I do feel like there’s a real creative energy here, and it really does call to me; everywhere you go, people are talking about art. It’s lovely to meet artists and go to their studios.” 

She’s drawn to sculpture, glass, and pottery in her own work, particularly since she has taken up her own ceramics practice again. It’s the texture she loves and the alchemy of being able to make something hard and functional from a soft natural material. 

Her arts-focused high school in Liverpool had a ceramics room and she got into the art form when she was about 14, going on to do her A Levels in ceramics and filling her parents’ house with her work. In her spare moments at school, she could usually be found in the art room having cups of tea with her art teachers. 

She made clocks and held a sell-out exhibition in Liverpool. Travelling to New Zealand to see distant relatives introduced her to the country’s natural beauty and laidback lifestyle, which she found inspiring.

Meeting Antony and working in a studio at the Arts Centre in Christchurch took her clock-making to a new level, and she ended up stocking many galleries around New Zealand. One of the first was the World of Wearable Art gallery in Nelson. 

“I remember Dame Suzie Moncrieff choosing them herself.” 

She naturally progressed into other work alongside her clock-making and was called to help at the Court Theatre, making props and helping with productions.  

It was a time when the Lord of the Rings film trilogy was the talk of the country, and Suzi decided her aim was to work at Weta Workshop and become part of the buzz of the film industry. She won a scholarship to do a special effects makeup course in Auckland, which resulted in her working on the production of The Chronicles of Narnia. However, she fell pregnant with Fenna and had only been on the job six weeks when she left. 

“I remember standing on the side of the road crying after leaving my dream job; I got a call from Richard and he said, ‘I love the clocks.’” “I said, ‘I’ve lost my job, I’m pregnant, I don’t think I can work for you.’”

But she ended up going to Wellington, spending her pregnancy working on King Kong. “Fenna is always known as the Kong baby,” Suzi says. “That was the ultimate career goal at the time, and I got there – it was amazing.” She worked on further films but found it too difficult with a young child and commuting, so while raising two children in Auckland, she created objects for design shops, such as a range of children’s toys made with French fabrics for French homewares store Madder and Rouge.

Now, Antony has just given her a potter’s wheel for her 50th birthday, and she’s happily delving back into her first love, clay. “I’ve come full circle back to ceramics,” she says. “I feel very blessed.” A few courses with sculptor, painter and art teacher Fiona Sutherland have helped her re-familiarise herself with the process and medium.

 “Now it’s quite mindful to be sitting there making.”

Recently, the couple have expanded RED Gallery into the area next door, knocking down walls and setting up the new light, bright and airy space just in time for Nelson Clay Week in early October.

“I am really excited because it’s going to bring lots of new pieces in; the space is something we have had for a year and a half but haven’t been able to do much because of Covid,” she says.

The new space has also provided a ramp for people needing an accessible entrance, which the original Red did not have.

Suzi says the new gallery is going to “change everything,” and she’s looking forward to new directions, such as being able to close off the new gallery and hold workshops. Red is still a lovely spot to sit and have a coffee surrounded by beautiful art, and the pair will also be able to eventually expand the popular café’s menu and footprint, with an eye to a future renovation. And the bagels are still flying out the door.

“It’s a great little place; we have had the same people, really lovely local people who come in regularly and have supported us the whole time,” she says. “We see them every weekend. It’s like one big family.”