“Breakdown to breakthrough. As terrifying as chaos can be, it is full of hope, of opportunity to make something new... these works are a manifestation of opportunity from collapse. They use a discarded material, a painting is made, destroyed then remade.”

Louise McRae creates, destroys and remakes striking and colourful landscapes using reclaimed materials. Born into a farming family in the Kaipara Harbour region (New Zealand), she is largely a self-taught artist, but later developed her talents through an MFA. Her love for sculpture, form and material is clear in her reassembled landscapes.

Louise creates her artwork from scrap macrocarpa timber, one of the most commonly used timbers in New Zealand’s building industry. She paints loose land, sky and seascapes onto the scraps, then splits them into shards. The shards are then re-assembled into panels of various shapes and formats. The result is a remarkable re-configuration of shattered scenes, strange landscapes and delightful colour variations. It’s a contemporary take on the distortion and unconventional practices of early cubism. Recycled materials are used to create sculptures which radiate movement and a sense of time and space.