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Canadian Art

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Wanda Koop: Painting for Godot

Michael Gibson Gallery, London May 1 to 23 2009
Wanda Koop  <I>Untitled (Red)</I>  2009 Wanda Koop Untitled (Red) 2009

Wanda Koop <I>Untitled (Red)</I> 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)

This article was first published online on May 14, 2009.

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