Gretchen Albrecht was born in Auckland in 1943 and graduated from the Elam School of Fine Arts at Auckland University with honours in 1964. She is one of New Zealand’s pre-eminent abstract painters.
In the 1970’s she experimented with different methods of applying paint to canvas. She used poured acrylic to create “stained” canvas formats. She then began using shaped canvas formats: the hemisphere (half circle) and the oval. From 2009 she created a new series of paintings that were rectangular works with oval painted shapes combined with slender, horizontal geometric forms.
Gretchen has exhibited extensively in New Zealand and internationally for over 40 years and her work is held in many major local and international collections including Te Papa, Auckland Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of NSW.
She was created Companion of the Order of New Zealand for services to painting in 2000.
