"Marie Lannoo: Peel"
2003-12-05 until 2004-01-17
Tatar Gallery
Toronto, ON, CA Canada

In Peel Saskatchewan artist Marie Lannoo deftly tackles the concept of perception. Using multiple layers of translucent medium, Lannoo creates paintings which have a depth in themselves. The glossy surfaces of her abstract images draw the viewer into a world in which paint itself has become a symbol, an alphabet. Inspired by abstract language symbols, and using the physical properties of paint as a vehicle, Peel subtly investigates the act of perception, and of sight.

Bewildered by both the multiple stimuli that surrounds her day to day world, and the ease with which her children navigate in this medium, Lannoo creates deceptively simple abstract works. Her paintings are at once a question and its answer, and she skillfully layers multiple elements of perception within a single image. By mixing images which require “slow, contemplative looking” and those which need only “a quick, cursory glance,” Lannoo commands the viewer’s perception at will, questioning both “what you

The images themselves are rich with layers and colour. Opaque disks of colour appear to be suspended within layers of great depth. The glossy surface makes regarding Lannoo’s work akin to gazing into very clear water, in which depth is both unknowable and undeniably present. There is something both aquatic and tropical in her paintings. These works catch and hold the viewer’s perception through their sight, and like a mirage they capture the imagination. You will find yourself searching below the surface for something deeper.

The work of Marie Lannoo will appear in the Fast Forward section of the winter edition of Canadian Art Magazine which is due on newsstands on December 15, 2003.

IMAGE
Marie Lanoo
Points of View, 2003
36" x 36"
Acrylic on panel

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for Canada

Other Important Exhibitions in Toronto