Shireen Kamran
Shireen Kamran, an established Montreal Based Artist, showcases her New work "OF TOTEMS AND MINARETS" at Canvas Gallery on January 10th 2012 From 5 pm to 8 pm.
The show continues daily until January 19th 2012 from 11 am - 8 pm (excluding Sunday)
Artists Statement
These new paintings renew my interest in exploring the intersections and tensions between the representational and the abstract. Akin to perception, and perhaps even reality, they oscillate between image and idea. These lyrical, yet somewhat comical creations reflect a restless mobility, a sensitivity to cultural displacement, and my memory of people and places. The works are dominated by silhouetted forms, reminiscent of totem poles and minarets. Upright and vertical, they dialogue with surrounding hybrid human and animal forms floating freely.
Process – that is the very act of making- is central to my work. Left apparent, the interplay of gestural brushstrokes, spontaneous mark-making, scraping, layering of paint, along with the use of collage elements, imbues the canvas with a raw physicality. Chaotic yet sublime, these paintings are meant to invoke an emotional state without conveying a particular meaning. Like a playful archaeology of the soul, they uncover and make visible the shared layers and lineages of the human experience.