Judith Mann
New Paintings and Drawings
Painting, Drawing
West Gallery

Canadian Artist, Halifax

PRESS RELEASE

Judith Mann is an artist from Halifax who will be exhibiting new work on canvas and paper.

Viewing related work exhibited last year in Halifax, Ron Shuebrook wrote:

"With the imagery more or less scaled to the perception of the actual size of the subject matter, the works explicitly refer to the effects of observed light on the literal shapes and volumes of architectural details. These shapes and volumes echo the rectangular support of the canvas. Moreover, Mann maintains the controlled gestural presence of the medium, be it oil on canvas, or pencil on rag paper, that avoids depicted texture while reminding the viewer that the image is an artifice; another order of experience that refers to but is not in reality a window.

In her self-imposed limitations, she has evolved a body of serious paintings that continues a tradition in which the window imagery and the rectangular support unite in a metaphor for a vision of the world. The depicted light and shadow on objects are manipulated as abstract shapes and subtly shift the formal, thus the expressive, relationship of the pictures. The initial impression of reliability that is stimulated by the informal symmetry is subverted by the carefully articulated internal forces. As each canvas is posed one against the other, depicting a different time of day or a different vantage point, that might be taken as an obvious ambition is proved to be just the reverse. Judith Mann dares to allow her works to whisper with distinctly quiet insights about our habits of perception; for the viewer who is as patient as she, there is much to consider that seems often to be neglected in the rush of daily life."
(Arts Atlantic)