A celebration of women artists at two local galleries
If, after seeing the exhibition to mark International Women’s Day at Wall Space Gallery, I must make a conclusion about what women artists are, then it will be this: women artists are a duality.
A duality appears throughout the exhibition of art by four women, sometimes explicitly, as in Erin Vincent’s axes-cumpincushions, and sometimes subtlety, as in Kelly Grace’s multimedia portraits. The duality is expressed in choice of form, in Lori Victor’s diptychs, and in choice of materials, in Sharon Kelly’s contrast of subject and media.
Lori Victor’s abstracts are inspired by Xu Bing’s Phoenix, a mammoth sculpture of the firebird made from discarded building materials, which Victor saw in 2012.
The direct inspiration is obscure, as Victor is creating abstractions on canvas, but an Asian influence is readily apparent in her works, in the flight of warm colours and breezy shapes that flow across the surface. The works make me think less of Bing’s Chinese roots than they do of Japanese works on paper, though, regardless, the result is joyous.
Sharon Kelly’s large paintings dwell on the soft vistas of a shoreline, a beloved place of contemplation and peace, as she says in her artist’s statement. Yet up close the harder, almost rocky texture of her layers of acrylic are revealed, and the tinge of abstraction in the technique makes the promise of the shore seem distant, as if it could be lost if taken for granted.
Kelly Grace’s multimedia works are unique multiples, as odd as that sounds. She starts with drawings that are printed and placed onto the surface, then covered in layers of drawing and painting, so each piece in any edition has unique qualities. (Declaration: Two small works by Grace hang in the Big Beat collection.)
Grace also has paintings, including one in acrylic and coloured pencil of a woman walking down a hallway, done in a sea foamy blue, a palette that heightens the nostalgia seen in much of Grace’s work. Two more paintings switch to brown, each with a women walking on an Ottawa sidewalk dappled by the retreating sun. In every case, the women walks away from the viewer, though I don’t feel as if something is lost. Perhaps it’s the warm affection and anticipation conveyed through Grace’s smaller, multimedia works, in which women prep for a night out, or are shown with a man at the movies.
Erin Vincent’s contribution to the exhibition is the most diverse, with abstract paintings, tiny sculptures of clouds, and a collection of altered axes that command attention. Vincent speaks in her artist’s statement of masculine and feminine, strength and delicacy, and creation and destruction — the duality, again. She has taken ordinary, weathered axes and methodically pressed into their handles hundreds (thousands?) of tiny gold pins, arranged in patterns that complement the utilitarian design of the tool, as if revealing something that had been missing and kept the axe from being complete. Here, feminism has turned masculinity in something greater than it could be by itself. It’s an evocative demonstration of the essential duality of the genders.
There is a happiness in all the works in the exhibition, an optimism that artful insight can make the world a better place — though as I leave the gallery I ask myself, does that optimism really pervade the works, or am I projecting a quality that I’ve always seen, and cherished, in women? Whatever the answer, I feel uplifted.
HER STORIES AT FRITZI
Precisely two kilometres to the east of Wall Space is the Fritzi Gallery, where eight women, all from Ottawa, will show works to mark International Women’s Day (March 8).
The exhibition, to open March 10, offers perspectives on “what it means to be a woman in Canada today,” writes curator Malika Walsh. Included are works by Nathalie Grice, Maya Hum, Marjorie Lubin, Melissa Blackman, Mahshid Farhoudi, Delphine Sullivan, Rosemary Breault-Landry and Ojo Evelyn Agi.
The gallery is upstairs at 1233 Wellington West, in the GCTC building. The vernissage is 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, March 12, and Her Stories continues to May 30.