Originally from the Kaipara Harbour, Louise McRae discovered her painting in an assemblage style early on, and formalised her practice when she received an MFA from Whitecliffe College of Art and Design.

She then moved into assemblage sculpture and has been a finalist in the Wallace Art Awards. She views her work as still rooted within the genre of painting but with an interest in form.

“Fundamental to my process-based practice is materiality. Material is what it is, it is here, now, completely present. With its particular strengths and limitations. I am interested in pushing the material, toward and beyond its boundaries, pulling back just at the moment it collapses. Capturing the moment it teeters on the edge of collapse, the energy and the urgency of the making is contained within the work. Inventing process, by using material in an unusual way, develops a tension between honesty and the unexpected. Not all is as it seems.” – Louise, 2020.

In Ancient Air (2022), a punk element guides her unique material forms. Her bends and folds echo their surrounding environment always in flux. In Meanwhile a Red (2023), a brilliant red relief sculpture challenges you to ask, can we (like this material) adapt to a world always in flux?

Louise has developed a renowned artistic practice that would rival many of New Zealand’s canonised contemporary sculptors. Her assemblages brimming with the joy she experiences in the making of them: shifting, swelling and sometimes tesselating with colour and surface texture.