A 'celebration of life” lies at the heart of Creative Tauranga's first exhibition of 2015, which opens to the public today.

‘The Celebration' is an exhibition featuring 60 works crafted by Ohope mixed media artist David Poole and will be on display until February 2.

Ohope mixed-media artist David Poole's piece ‘The Mermaid' is one of 60 works appearing in his exhibition ‘The Celebration' opening today. Photo: Creative Tauranga/David Poole.

'In the sense it's all about innocence and purity,” explains David. 'It's basically celebrating life itself and most of it focusses on the human form, though there are landscapes in the exhibition but they have figures in them.”

The award-winning artist says the two and three dimensional works were created over the last couple of years and have been fashioned from a huge range of materials.

A handful of his figures were made from palm seed pods, while others use the insides of those pods.

He says: 'The faces I have made out of clay, fibres, fabrics and gemstones. While other pieces I have constructed completely using materials like wood, steel and paper.”

Born in Opotiki, David started out as a hairdresser in Auckland where he cut the hair of television announcers like Angela D'Audney, and stars such as Ray Columbus and The Chicks.

In 1971 he decided to 'go out on an adventure” and ventured off to London where he would continue with hairdressing, as well as completing studies at the Hampstead School of Art.

He returned to New Zealand after 31 years, originally settling on Auckland's Hibiscus Coast for more than a decade before shifting to Ohope last year.

This will be his first exhibition in Tauranga and David says he's looking forward to the opening this Friday.

Also, one lucky exhibition goer will have the opportunity to take home his piece titled ‘The Mermaid' once the exhibition wraps up on February 2.

All proceeds generated from the raffle will help David ship 50 pieces over to Australia for an exhibition called '100 years of Anzac” to be held in Brisbane later this year.

The exhibition focusses on the ANZAC relationship between New Zealand and Australia.

Tickets cost $2 each, or $5 for three tickets, and can be purchased at the exhibition from Creative Tauranga.

David Poole's ‘The Mermaid'