ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

With my recent work, Visual Silence, I wanted to respond to the question, ‘what is the point of painting in our post-modern world?’ Voided of all figurative or narrative content, the 6 large canvasses in chromatic greys aim to envelop the viewer in an experience that is more than purely visual. Like a long, sonorous drone, there is no focal point, no climax. Without obvious message or meaning, the canvasses simply ‘attest to presence’.

Visual Silence is a work about space – the space it is intended for, as well as the space within the work. This particular version of Visual Silence was specifically created for the intimate space of Visual Voice Gallery. Each version of Visual Silence is influenced by my surroundings as well as where it will ultimately hang. In another environment, the work takes on other attributes. But the silent emptiness remains.

Within the canvasses, the aim is to create depth without the usual build-up of the paint surface, to deny superficial reference so as to give the viewer the sense of ‘falling into’ the space beyond the canvas.

Visual Silence is also a work about time, created by the slow and laborious layering of ultra-thin paint (35 layers in all), each canvas was treated in the same manner. Subtle differences nonetheless arise. Without offering the usual visual focal point, the aim is to slow the eye, to create a break in the visual continuum that threatens to inundate us, to deny a quick and easy reading.

Visual Silence is complemented by a secondary work, Echoes, consisting of 30 small canvasses in oils that show a more sensual, small-scale version of this concept.

Montreal, March 2012
Alannah Krutina

 

 

 

ABOUT THE ARTIST

An international artist, born in Switzerland and raised in Montreal, Alannah Krutina has lived and exhibited in Switzerland, Germany, France, England and Cyprus as well as Vancouver and Montreal. She has been artist-in-residence at the prestigious CAMAC centre near Paris, at Cyprus College of Art in Cyprus and most recently at Ctrllab Gallery in Montreal. In 2010 she received a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art (Diploma Cipris) from Cyprus College of Art, following which she returned to Canada. She has been living and working in Montreal since September 2010.

Specialized in large-scale and/or multipanel abstracts marked by their absence of narrative or figurative content, she is also known for her nudes.

www.akrutina.com

Exhibition
April 19 - 28, 2012

Vernissage
Saturday, April 21, 2012
2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.