Louise McRae - Sculpture On The Gulf

Louise McRae – Biography

Louise McRae lives and works near Pakiri Beach. She has an MFA from Whitecliffe College of Art & Design.

“We owe a great debt to the trees, we are deeply connected through time to the great trees of the forest. They stand witness to all that has happened over the ages and hold knowledge for the future that we are only beginning to understand.

I propose to make a work that loops and shines and bounces and sings about the curling branches of the Pohutukawa tree. It thrives where others cannot. It stands with its roots in rock facing all the Pacific can throw at it. I pay homage through this work, and hope to lure others, to stop, to see, celebrate this tree.”

Louise McRae, December 2021

“My Grandfathers felled large areas of native forest in the Kaipara area to ‘develop land’ for agriculture, unaware of the impact their actions would have. The native trees and re-used wood as material has been a constant in my work. My earlier career was concerned with pulling apart painting, mixing with material (re-using discarded native timber) to generate works that operate as image and object.”

Over a decade of annual and bi-annual solo exhibitions and select group exhibitions with SEED Gallery and The Vivian Gallery.

Recent solo exhibitions

Un-monument Project – using collapse as a way to make and to question the meaning of the monuments in our community.

Brick Bay Sculpture Trail, Snells Beach, Auckland The Vivian Gallery, Matakana, Auckland
The Vivian Gallery, Hotel Grand Windsor
Seed Gallery, The Grey Place, Grey Lynn, Auckland