NEW SERIES OF PAINTINGS IS A MIXTURE OF THOUGHTFUL INVESTIGATION AND COMPELLING BEAUTY
Coronation explores the visual imagery of the headdress. The series takes its departure from the things we display on our heads: crowns, halos, veils, fascinators, even fruit arrangements. People adorn their heads for a variety of reasons: for the purpose of protection, the identification of gender, a signification of authority, a craving for ritual or to make a fashion statement. Such adornment can play a significant role in the establishment of social order, such the visual signifier of a monarch’s connection to the divine or sky.
This series juxtaposes visual elements from a variety of objects, raising questions with regard to purpose, and with regard to apparent similarities and relationships between the objects.
The artist expands on her previous work, pursuing a confluence of painterly styles in this series, an aim that continues to drive much 21st Century painting. Musgrave sees this trend arising out of artists’ fascination with society’s most common viewing experience through the internet, where an historical image such as a 19th Century painting by Joseph Turner is perceived in juxtaposition to a neon optical pattern on this same screen, with little or no reference to a linear narrative connection
The artist expands on her previous work, pursuing a confluence of painterly styles in this series, an aim that continues to drive much 21st Century painting. Musgrave sees this trend arising out of artists’ fascination with society’s most common viewing experience through the internet, where an historical image such as a 19th Century painting by Joseph Turner is perceived in juxtaposition to a neon optical pattern on this same screen, with little or no reference to a linear narrative connection
While her previous series sought to raise questions about aesthetics and about non-linear viewing, this new series of paintings investigates possible narratives or relationships that can be found within the internet’s ability to compile massive amounts of visual imagery across time related to a visual theme.
The Peter Buckland Gallery is excited to offer you this first major exhibition in Saint John by artist, Deanna Musgrave. Please join us next week to view this exhibition and to meet the artist.