Meredith Collins paintings are part-portrait, part-myth, part-identity search. Equally they are deceptive, beguiling, affirmations of dream and gaze.

She develops and uses patterns and designs as integral elements of the works and person. These patterns and designs - although understated - have a cultural language which reaches across distance and time, uniting Maori and European heritage.

While this is personal and particular to the artist, Meredith Collins locates her subjects in a future which – she is stating – can be found now. In Exotic Native – Legacy Series, Discovery (2008) mythic light is held by two children. In the remarkable painting Exotic Native – Legacy Series, Twin Futures (2008) Collins delivers a work of rare human poignancy and beauty in which the children’s hand-holding serve to prepare the viewer for their endless total connection.

There is no doubt Collins has a unique ability to deliver innocence and knowledge as if synonymous, to establish a power of gaze that totally unites viewer and subject, to produce portraits which are not limited to the personality of the sitter or the artist. Works from the Exotic Native – Ta Moko Series commence as portraits of the artist and her children but attain extraordinary heights of universality and engagement.