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| Press Release
JourneysMarch 1 - 31, 2007 Artist reception: Thursday March 1, 6 - 8pm A bush pilot for 30 years, Canadian artist Judith Currelly is inspired by the aerial perspective of northern British Columbia, the Yukon and Nunavut. Her elegant and serene oil paintings pay tribute to the dynamic relationships of living systems - from the tiniest ecosystems to the vast and intricate interplay of air, land, water and living creatures. A new sense of human interaction with the land emerges in Journeys. While bodies of water, land formations, grazing animals and birds abound, Currelly achieves a fresh perspective through the placement of human silhouettes in the landscape. The topological features are further enhanced by hand-written text and thereby gain a powerful sense of narrative. The serene paintings encourage contemplation on our relationship with the land, on our experience and knowledge of it, and on our desire to create images of it. For example, To Know a Mountain uses script-like text, contour maps and a figure standing on the skyline to represent different ways of knowing the land. The artist writes, “Several of the new paintings include a simple silhouette of a person. It usually appeared just when I thought the painting was finished. I found it intrusive and visually jarring at first. Now, if I remove the figure, the painting seems incomplete. Landscape changes dramatically when even the suggestion of a human figure is added. It puts us in the picture and all that implies. I find this intriguing.” Judith Currelly was born in Toronto, Ontario and studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design as well as the University of Victoria, BC. She has a prestigious exhibition record spanning three decades. Her work is included in numerous private, corporate and public collections in Canada and the United States. |
Leaving the Cave, 2006 |
