Static Storm 2024
Static Storm- Patrick Mikhail Gallery, Montréal, Québec. January – March, 2024. I am an artist who is fascinated by the present; the social, political, psychological 'feel' of experiencing now. I believe, as Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian media theorist stated that artists should act as the early warning systems of a society. In this exhibition, Static-Storm, I reference and make current the cultural critic Walter Benjamin’s idea of the ‘storm of progress’, weaving together my perceptions of digital technologies, speculative urban futures, and feminisms. I see my paintings as assemblages of networked ideas, colours, lines and shapes that are both beautiful and somewhat menacing at the same time. These interconnect to both one another and to the gallery space, creating an experiential installation for the viewer. My work is always rooted in my experiences as a young woman growing up in a working class, immigrant area of downtown Montréal with socially/politically engaged parents. My creative research begins by walking city streets, observing, thinking about what I see, & photographing. I view the urban environment through the lens of such concepts as public/private space, surveillance, gendered and racialized spaces, the techno-sublime, spectacle and feminist geography. As a woman abstract painter, most influenced by the lineage of geometric abstraction, including my early mentors, Guido Molinari and Yves Gaucher, I have always been aware of the strong male tradition within this style. My work both honours and critiques that past by testing it in both form and concept. Instead of seeing abstraction as autonomous, I choose to go against the grain; to create points of tension, collision, and intensity that reflect upon our current world. |