Louise Henderson was a Paris-born interior and embroidery designer who moved to Ōtautahi Christchurch in 1925. In her earliest paintings, from 1933 on, she was regularly drawn to urban and industrial subject matter such as city streets, brickworks and rock quarries. She became a key figure in local art circles, including as part of The Group, and influential in the development of a Canterbury landscape painting style. The Addington Railway Workshops opened in Christchurch in 1879 and closed in 1990, at its height employing over a thousand people. In its depiction of workers assembling locally produced locomotives, Henderson’s fascinating composition reflects something of her left-leaning political interests through the 1930s and 1940s. (From Here on the Ground, 18 May – 17 November 2024)