Wanda Koop: Painting for Godot
Wanda Koop Untitled (Red) 2009
In her new show “View from Here,” Winnipeg’s most famous contemporary painter takes on abstraction in a series of hybrid paintings that use abstract spaces as landscape settings for small human-silhouette figures. The results come across as if the wide-ranging works were a series of stage sets for an ongoing, existentialist Beckett play (theatre directors take note). While some of the paintings are small, this is poignant and inventive work that stakes Koop’s claim as one of the country’s best painters and raises expectations for the 30-year survey exhibition that launches at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in fall 2010. Few Canadian painters have produced such a varied body of work while sustaining such consistent quality. This London show is a treat and it raises interesting, open-ended questions about the humanist implications of abstract art. (157 Carling Ave, London ON)
Wanda Koop Untitled (Note for Hybrid Human) 2009
Wanda Koop “View from Here” 2009 Installation view
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