Media Release:

Art in Honour: Sheree Foster’s Powerful Tribute to the Women Behind the Breast Cancer Journey

Auckland, New Zealand — November 2025:

North Shore artist Sheree Foster unveiled a deeply personal and emotionally resonant new exhibition at Lake House Arts, Takapuna, this November. The collection—comprising seven original artworks—honours the courage, vulnerability, and lived realities of women affected by breast cancer.

 The inspiration for the series began with a single story. Someone close to Foster shared their breast cancer journey, prompting a cascade of memories of the many women in her own life who had faced similar battles. Some survived, some continued fighting, and some had passed on—each leaving a profound imprint on the artist.

 “I couldn’t stop thinking about them,” Foster says. “The women who had passed, the women who were recovering, the ones who had just received the news. The shock. The bravery. The unknown. I needed to create something that acknowledged them.”

 Nine Stages of Strength

 From this emotional catalyst came a series of nine works, each representing a chapter in the physical and emotional progression of breast cancer. The pieces are raw, symbolic, and layered—charting a visual journey from the gut-punch of diagnosis and the stripping back of identity, through the gruelling phases of treatment, and into the slow rebuilding and reclaiming of the self.

 Early in the compositions they reflect rupture and vulnerability through fractured textures and exposed forms. As the series progresses, light begins to enter; colour shifts; shapes stabilise. The final piece conveys strength, celebration, and the emergence of a woman rebuilt and honoured.

 Visitors described the exhibition experience as “quietly overwhelming,” “healing,” and “unexpectedly grounding.” Foster’s ability to communicate through abstraction while keeping the human story at the core is what gives the collection its resonance.

Cancer Warriors: Art With Purpose

 A centrepiece of the exhibition, Cancer Warriors (1250mm x 960mm), carries special significance. Sale of this work, generates a donation to Breast Cancer Foundation NZ, a gesture that extends the exhibition’s impact beyond the gallery walls.

 “It didn’t feel right to create a body of work about these incredible women without giving something tangible back,” Foster explains. “Cancer Warriors belongs to them.”

 A Community Responds

 Lake House Arts, known for championing local creative voices, provided an intimate and reflective setting for the exhibition. Surrounded by Foster’s textured, emotive compositions, viewers were invited to pause, breathe, and remember the women in their own lives who have walked this difficult path.

 In a world where strength is often portrayed loudly, Foster’s exhibition highlights the quieter, more intimate forms of resilience—waiting rooms, whispered fears, small victories, and the fragile rebuilding of identity. The works acknowledge the hardship without lingering in despair, offering instead a tribute to courage expressed daily and often silently.

 A December Reflection

 As the year draws to a close, the exhibition serves as a poignant reminder of the resilience found in the everyday lives around us. It calls on the community to acknowledge the women fighting battles often unseen—and to celebrate those who stand tall again after being broken apart.

 Sheree Foster’s nine artworks form more than an exhibition. They are a conversation, a tribute, and a gesture of love—ultimately celebrating women who embody quiet, unyielding strength. Sitting among a total of 21 works in this exhibition of works a survival story has been told, pieces hold battles fought as Foster burnt, craved, striped, defaced and layered until they were reborn. Now something powerful has emerged.

 Make a meaningful addition to your collection. Selected works from Sheree Foster’s exhibition directly support Breast Cancer Foundation NZ.