What: “Geographically Incorrect” Art Exhibit
Where: Coburg Coffee House
6085 Coburg Road Halifax, NS
When: September 1 to October 31, 2012
Contact: Monika Wright
902-229-2048 [email protected]
www.monikawright.com
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“Geographically Incorrect”
Sumptuous Mixed Media Paintings at The Coburg Coffee House will delight all your senses.
This fall, from September 1st to October 31st, Monika Wright and Fabienne Leydecker will be displaying a series of mixed media paintings in the series “Geographically Incorrect”. The artwork is striking, dripping in sumptuous colour and vibrancy with a sense of 3 dimensional depth and texture. It’s a combination that stirs up your senses.
Wright’s mixed media paintings are vibrant, with an organic composition that clearly evolves as she creates the work. There is a clear sense of fluid spontaneity in each painting, a sense of other-worldliness. The viewer will be tempted to explore the work, searching for the recognizable, looking for the visual geographical hemisphere in these images again and again.
Wright says, “Creating is a way of communicating with people on a subliminal level, a way to reach them with a message they may not be ready to hear because they are too distracted by a world that is tattered and torn apart by disparate factions of all kinds: economic, religious, territorial. These are all man made boundaries and dogmas, which I reject, because at the end of the day, we are all part of this puzzle together. We need to find a way to rearrange our priorities and be inclusive, to rearrange the puzzle”.
With this body of work, Wright draws attention to these man-made boundaries, which alienate us from one another. She rearranges them in a cohesive way that draws the viewer into the realm of beauty and gratitude for what we share here on earth. In a world obsessed with darkness, she introduces light, hope and joy. This series, “Geographically Incorrect”, shows the pieces of the land we call home, reassembled, reconfigured in ways that tell us, we are all part of one world. What we choose to see and believe will determine how we live, not just where we live.”
Wright moved to Nova Scotia in 2005 and immediately became involved with a painting group in Fall River, Artspa, and a photography co-operative in Halifax, ViewPoint Gallery. Her time is spent between her passion for painting and her photography, but they are not separate endeavours. The two mediums clearly influence one another. There is quite a remarkable consistency in the style of her abstract photography and her paintings.
In addition to her role as president of ViewPoint Gallery, a member of Artspa and Visual Arts Nova Scotia, she is also a newly elected member to the Society of Canadian Artists (SCA). Her work is exhibited at ViewPoint Gallery, Art Sales and Rentals at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and is held in private, corporate and public collections in Canada and the USA.
Fabienne Leydecker says, “Paintings are the visible soul of the artist.” By seeing and understanding the work, you glimpse inside the artist herself. As an artist, Leydecker has always felt that the beauty of the hidden world interests her most. “I love it best when my paintings show, not only the beauty of the colours and light, but when they also evoke a sense of mystery. I always felt that my paintings reveal my true spirit. I paint my inner vision and the viewer adds the depth of their own imagination, interpreting my work in a partnership of creation.”
As an artist, Leydecker has always felt that the beauty of the hidden word interests her most. “I love it best when my paintings show not only the beauty of the colours and light, but when they also evoke a sense of mystery. I always felt that my paintings reveal my true spirit. I paint my inner vision and the viewer adds the depth of their own imagination, interpreting my work in a partnership of creation.”
Leydecker grew up in France and has lived in many places before moving to Nova Scotia. Her fascination with the rocks that line Highway 101 enroute to Halifax from her home in Halls Harbour has left a mark in her stunning paintings. She knew from the time she noticed the way the light played with the colour of the rocks that she would, one day, explore these formations as a subject for her art.
About a year ago, Fabienne developed a new technique involving metallic sheet painting and with that, she discovered the opportunity to combine some of favourite subjects with this new technique, the rock formations and her love of horses. The paintings that resulted are alive with vibrant colour and depth, a magnificent vitality that brings dimension to the hard, strong rocks she’s seen along the roadside and the animals she has loved all her life.
Leydecker is owner of the Copper Fox Gallery in Halls Harbour, a member of various arts organizations including VANS and AKA, and is included in collections throughout Canada and France. This summer, Leydecker was juried in the 2012 Calgary Stampede Western Art Auction as well as the Western art Gallery.
Wright and Leydecker will be showing their work together at the Coburg Coffee House from September 1st to October 31st.
The Coburg Coffee House is located at 6085 Coburg Rd, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Open 7 am to 9 pm daily.
www.coburgcoffee.com or visit www.monikawright.com for more details and images of the show.