Susy Oliveira: Analog Authenticity
Susy Oliveira Breeding violets 2009
Ideas of the natural and the artificial come together in intriguing ways in the work of emerging artist Susy Oliveira. In an exhibition at Toronto’s Peak Gallery two years ago, Oliveira showed compelling objects that played with both artistic and scientific conceptions of the opposition between nature and culture. And Oliveira’s brand of new-alchemical fun promises to continue this month in Calgary as her solo show opens the New Gallery’s new space at Art Central, a downtown visual arts complex. On the artistic end, Oliveira’s objects combine photographic images, sculptural volumes and digital proportions, highlighting the supposed authenticity of “analog” genres in creative practice. From a scientific perspective, Oliveira’s artworks take supposedly biological phenomena—anything from a bear to a piece of grass—and transform them into overtly different, inert, plastic-coated forms of matter. Provided that the artist can keep all her visual and conceptual elements in a taut balance, it’s likely that this show—and an upcoming March solo exhibition at Platform in Winnipeg—will be worth a drop by. (100-200 7 Ave SW, Calgary AB)
Susy Oliveira Nocturnal Garden 2009
Susy Oliveira The sun also shines on a pile of twigs 2009
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