GALERIE D’ESTE April 2-April 26 2020
4396 St. Laurent Blvd. Montreal, QC
Opening Reception April 2nd, 5-8 pm .
The paintings in this exhibition, A Shuffle and Pivot, imagine settlements at various stages of construction or dissemblance, in conversation with their surroundings.
Growing up in the two prairie cities, Winnipeg and Saskatoon, Megan has always been keen to observe any changes made to the seemingly flat horizon from where she lives. Drawn to mountain imagery, she has come to notice the mountainous piles closer to home, but of which are manmade. For instance, when snow falls on the streets and sand is laid to combat icy conditions, it is eventually all gathered and brought to one giant hill just east of the city. It doesn’t fully melt until July, and what is revealed is just a mountain of sand and dirt. Outside the city on the west side, there is a giant pit from which this sand was dug up. In civilization, we can’t seem to escape making pits and piles to see us through to our needs and desires.
The fictional settlements that Megan depicts in her paintings, consist mainly of tent-like structures, as they suggest a ready impermanence. Tents emphasize the idea that we are all transient peoples, forever susceptible to our changing environments, whether by choice or not. Megan’s process of intuitive mark making and editing through the creation of transparent layers, is not so dissimilar from how we, as transient peoples, make our mark on the landscapes we inhabit. This day in age, we tend to plan for the short term, we decorate with colour, patterns and motifs, we constantly evolve and edit and then we move on. Through the process of painting, Megan meditates on what might be left behind, whether it is in the form of material deposits or landscape alteration. How does the surrounding environment respond to our settlement remains after we dismantle? What has been dug up and buried, only to be dug up again and then buried again?
With the generous support of the Manitoba Arts Council:
MEGAN D. KRAUSE 