Jo Ogier was born in Nelson in 1967 and now works and lives in Sumner, Christchurch. An MFA graduate from the Otago School of Art, Ogier also holds a Diploma in Plant and Wildlife Illustration (NSW Australia), along with a series of scholarships and awards - including the William Hodges Fellowship awarded to the artist in 2000. She has exhibited extensively in New Zealand and in several group shows in Australia, Japan and France. Ogier has also completed a number of large scale commissions for the Otago Museum, Nelson Provincial Museum and the Department of Conservation. Jo's work is concerned with issues of conservation, ecology and the role each of us can have in nurturing, protecting and preserving our fragile world. It seeks to promote public awareness of the unique beauty of the many endemic species of flora and fauna, plus the fragility of the ecological systems within it. Her more recent series of woodblock prints and drawings look at some of the reasons why many of our species have been pushed into or to the brink of extinction, especially with regard to the Huia and South Island Kokako. Jo has been part of several group exhibitions at the Millennium Art Gallery. Her first solo exhibition at the Gallery, Voyager, featured in 2001.