It’s been ages since I’ve stopped, let the world around me roll by, and allow a painting to become my whole world for more than a minute or two. Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects on Queen St. West is presently exhibiting work by a painter who is new to me: Margaux Williamson.
Her medium is oil on wood panel, and her style is reminiscent of Peter Doig’s The collisions of the real and the surreal, the expressive and the absent., the strange and the lovely, really drew me in. I wanted to understand the empty spaces as well as the full ones. I wanted to know why, at first, I felt as though I misunderstood the figure’s expression, instead of accepting that she had a “House for a Head”(2005, oil on wood panel)* see image below.
I was delighted at every turn. Playful abstraction and sinister, undefined landscapes characterize most of the work exhibited. The rich, fulfilling surfaces are fulfilling because of what is happening below the surface: there is so much color and shape showing through from underneath. The unfinished quality to the work, both in technique and in narrative, left me fascinated: what are these worlds and why do the children seem to be existing in them with such a seeming complacency?
The gallery is: www.kmartprojects.com
And the painter’s site is: www.margauxwilliamson.com
