Click here for the 2009 Square Foot
call for submissions!



Current Exhibition:
Janet Gasparotto
A Vulnerable Wholeness
Opening Receptoin: Friday, June 26th at 7pm
June 25- July 5, 2009
Gallery hours: Thurs. - Sat. 12-6pm & Sun. 1-5pm





ARTIST STATEMENT
A Vulnerable Wholeness
Have you ever found yourself at your limit and felt as though you were peering nakedly into the beyond? Our world can sometimes seem to crumble before the looming prospect of a reality that threatens to destabilize us. Our sense of order is stretched, jumbled; our status called into question. Whatever we took to be certain can be thrown into doubt. But something must die, or be let go of, in order for something new to emerge. My work embodies the transformative potential of such liminal experiences.

The struggle between pain and joy, containment and release, and memory and possibility, conflicts our humanity and yet is also the essential evocation of spirituality. There is a dialectic between energy and exhaustion in these paintings, which is deeply related to this association between the spiritual and the corporeal.

The inspiration for my work is the cry of the human condition. I distort photographs of the female face and body through a photocopying process, conjuring metaphors to the manipulation of power structures which erode our identity, self-worth and dignity. I respond to these deconstructed bodily images with empathetic gestural marks. These marks communicate my physical activity and by extension engage the viewer’s body, stimulating a corporeal and emotional exchange. Fluid marks and drips punctuated by more painterly and solid brushwork create images which are ephemeral and convey an ambiguity between effacement and emergence, absence and presence, and destruction and creation.

I use mylar as the support for my paintings. Mylar is almost invisible and invites the viewer to pass through it and the image, to the fragile and ethereal world it evokes. As the images unfold in all their vulnerability, we are enfolded by them.
I create work which encompasses enigma, transition and contradiction. The contemplation of these mysteries deepens our self awareness and renews our relationship with redeeming forces and powers beyond our capabilities.


AWOL Gallery was voted as one of the Best Contemporary Art Galleries for
Emerging Artists in blogTO's annual Best of Independent Toronto poll!