The notion of travel presents itself as an image to link the interests of the four painters in this exhibition. As Robyn Neate has written, "On its twisting, side stepping, back flipping acrobatic journey from the caves of Lascaux to the Tate Modern it could be said that painting has gathered 'a lot of baggage'." The four painters here acknowledge the "baggage" that painting carries - both historical and psychological - and all remain excited about the way painting continues to provide a relevant mode of speaking to their lives now.

MARIE LE LIEVRE

To quote Neate again: "To make this load a little easier Le Lievre's solution has been to take notion of "baggage" literally and bundle the legacy of colour field painting into handbags. Or to be more precise, painted shapes that resemble handbags." This gesture insists that these paintings must be seen to be about life and not simply an engagement with art and its history. Critic John Hurrell has described Le Lievre as having an "extraordinary ability to manipulate liquid paint into mesmerising sensual surfaces on canvas".

Marie Le Lievre completed an MFA with distinction at the University of Canterbury in 2008. She has exhibited in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch and was included in the Christchurch Art Gallery's 2009 exhibition of emerging painters. Her work is in private and public collections including the University of Canterbury, Christchurch Art Gallery and Fletcher Challenge Corporation.

HELEN CALDER

In the mid 20th century, abstract colour field painting was considered the epitomy of what pure painting should be. Helen Calder confronts this by creating three dimensional paintings or objects where the paint is totally separated from canvas and stretcher.

"They are also odd fetish objects with their high gloss finish and thick rubbery consistency. They entice in the sense they invite touching and rubbing. It is not just the brightly hued glistening surfaces you want to fondle. The languid olds and the (occasionally) raggedy edges of each sheet you want to explore with your fingertips. "John Hurrell, eyecontactsite.com

Christchurch based Helen Calder graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Canterbury in 2003. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, notably at The Bridge Art Fair, Berlin in 2008, as a finalist in The Waikato National Art Awards in 2010, 2009, 2008 and 2005, the Wallace Art Award in 2009 and currently in 'Blue Planet' at the Christchurch Art Gallery. Her work is held in several New Zealand collections among them the Chartwell Collection and the Fletcher Trust Collection.

RUTH THOMAS-EDMOND

Ruth Thomas-Edmond is also interested in how paint operates in two and three-dimensional form and produces drawings, paintings and sculptural works that reference "multiple landscapes and experiences, seen and sorted and later remembered".

Thomas-Edmond's work renews our wonder of the meandering journey and the particular passage that is the exploration of visual space. Her work operates at both the level of the map and the territory simultaneously, for she creates spaces while recording them. Yet because she generates her own territory, literally making her own terrain, she evades having to actually refer to any location or real place. The paintings are reminiscent, they resemble and they float like thought bubbles, ideas or memories... The work is imbued with aspects of our everyday lives; tracts of time, momentary tea breaks, interruptions and concentration. They hum, shiver, shimmer, vibrate and oscillate. James Robertson

Ruth completed her MFA at the Elam School of Fine Arts in 2005 and has been painting, exhibiting and teaching since then. Her work has attracted a good amount of critical writing and she is included in the 2009 book 'Seen this century: 100 Contemporary New Zealand Artists' by Warwick Brown.

EILEEN LEUNG

Eileen Leung's work almost literally takes us on a journey into a hybrid world where forms are strangely familiar but not quite recognizable. The viewer is encouraged to look as might a traveler to a new land. This experience is familiar to Leung as a Hong Kong Chinese migrant to New Zealand. Her work invokes elements of traditional Eastern painting, Western modernism and pop culture.

"Leung's forms are conglomerations of asymmetrical and biomorphic shapes that levitate out from the wall. Painted details that at first seem abstract decoration, on closer inspection resolve into figurative details reminiscent of the flattened axonometric landscapes of traditional Eastern ceramics and scroll paintings in an unexpected palette of pastel and acid hues." Andrew Paul Wood

Eileen Leung has an MFA from the Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland. She has exhibited throughout New Zealand and in Korea, Hong Kong and Switzerland