July 1st- August 12th, 2006
Jinny Yu and Francine Lalonde
Opening reception and artist talks Saturday July 1st, 3-5pm
Jinny Yu (NB/ITALY)
Me(n)tal Perspectives
Sameness
The difference between one sameness and another
Living for living
Categorization
Unspoken order
Each one is a superhero
Nobody cares
So many unappreciated differences, it is the sameness
In her works, the notion of space is explored from different perspectives both formally and conceptually. This exploration is meshed with the incessant existential ambiguity of painting as a valid medium in contemporary society. To her, this presents a very interesting tension that is reflected and explored in her works.
With the previous series of paintings, she examined the concept of space from a socio-economic perspective, while manipulating different perspectives on the textured surface of the paintings. She was interested in the ideas and the visuals that urban living spaces presented to her at the time.
After moving to Sackville, Yu produced a series of paintings called Interlace (DVD). This series of paintings gives an expressive, repetitive/obsessive, linear calligraphy of visual static. The grammar of parallel horizontals barely conceals the punctuation marks of paint that seem to exist simultaneously above, behind and within that linear energy field. In sifting out these marks, one begins to realize that they may also act as a visual metaphor for natural forms such as marsh sedge and grasses. These interlace lines nullify and activate the images underneath.
Her artist residency in Berlin last year lead her to produce a recent series of works called Me(n)tal Perspectives (CD). In this series of work, the visual play of perspective on and behind the surface is emphasized. In these works Yu considers such notions as individuality, mass, and anonymity. As the title and the visual images suggest, her ambiguous feeling towards the busyness of urban life is expressed in this series of work. It is at the same time the disgust towards the density and containment, but also the fascination towards the complicated visuals. Most of the works in this series are produced on aluminum sheets with graphite pencils and paint, on which Yu continues to play with the different perspectives. Expressive lines of different size done with graphite occupy the entire surface of the metal sheet; they are however contained within the boundary of the surface. The different layers of perplex perspectives are enhanced by an additional layer of lines suggesting an urban architectural setting.
---
A native of Seoul, South Korea, Jinny M.J. Yu has lived in Seoul, Montreal, Toronto, Sackville, Venice and will be living in Ottawa from the fall 2006. She holds an MFA and MBA degree from York University and from Schulich School of Business and a BFA degree from Concordia University.
Since 1996, Yu’s works have been shown in numerous exhibitions, which have taken place in various museums and galleries across Canada, in the United States, in Japan and in Russia. An artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts in 1999 and at Stiftung Starke in Berlin in 2004, at Red Gate Gallery in Beijing in 2005, and a grant receipient of Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, Jinny Yu has taught in Toronto, Montreal, Sackville (NB), Paris (France) and is currently working on a research project at the Center for Studies on Technologies in Distributed Intelligence Systems at the Venice International Universty. She has given guest lectures at various educational institutions, such as Sangmyung University in Seoul, Korea, NSCAD University in Halifax, Concordia University and Cegep Rosemont in Montreal.
Represented by the Galerie Art Mûr in Montreal, her paintings are featured in various museum, corporation, foundation and private collections. Some of the collectors include Musée du Québec, Ernst & Young, ICI Canada Inc., and Mills Foundation
Francine Lalonde (QC)
Flexible spaces
The subject of Francine lalonde's works in sculpture-installation is the appropriation of a physical and mental space. The work is the result of architectural and spatial analysis, and the study of proximity relations and psychoanalysis. Since 1998, Lalonde has been expressing these interests formally by integrating architectonic structures into spaces in which the architectural components, dimensions, scale relations, light sources, and so on have been meticulously analyzed. While she adds volume, it is, of course, her own investigation and spatial experience that is superimposed on a place, similar to "marking" her territory.
Architectonic structures emerge and seem to escape from the materials with which they are built- gypsum wallboard and dry wall compound. They create overhangs, form ridges and produce crevices. These spaces become both a support for "drawings in space" and volume in which one can read the original space and the "added" space, augmented with visual signs whose function is to "search" the space in the manner of mind or body extensions, revealing to viewers their own investigation possibilities, such as measuring the height and the width of a space, exploring it's depth, it's surface area or thickness of a partition, etc.
What should result from this shared space, both introspective and open to exterior, is a zone of intersubjectivity, a "neutral and permeable interface located at an equal distance between you and me"1, a dialogue between two different but simultaneous experiences of the space.
1. Louis Fortier, Lettre a l'artiste qui s'incarne dans les murs, Centre des arts actuels SKOL, 2002
---
Francine Lalonde lives and works in Montreal. She has presented her work in about twenty group and solo exhibition at various artist-run centres such as Articule, Powerhouse, Skol and Circa in Montreal, Axe Néo-7 in Hull, Oeil de poisson in Quebec City, Rouyn-Noranda, Eyelevel Gallery in Halifax and Grunt in Vancouver. She has produced artworks for public art program projects at CEGEP de Gatineau and Maison-Théâtre in Montreal. In 2004, she participated in a Quebec-Catalan exchange, travelling to Barcelona, Spain to create a work for Hanger art centre. She has taught visual art at Collège Édouard-Montpetit since 2000.
|
