In Helen Calder's new, and first solo, exhibition in the gallery paint slips, hangs and stacks in space creating a sensory and immersive densely-coloured three-dimensional installation.

The plasticity and tactility of paint is foregrounded as it is allowed to leave its conventional pictorial support. Fluid finds form, space becomes the canvas and colour becomes a physical as well as visual experience as we walk around and amongst the 'paintings'. Questions about the nature of painting, and references to its history (particularly mid 20th century modernism) are overt.

Following a career as a high school art teacher, Helen returned to the University of Canterbury completing her Master of Fine Arts in 2003. Since then she has exhibited steadily throughout New Zealand and in Australia, France and Germany. A major work currently features prominently in the Christchurch Art Gallery's re-opening exhibition.

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