MAY 4 - JUNE 10, 2023
OPENING RECEPTION
THURSDAY MAY 4 I 6 - 8
LALANI JENNINGS CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY
NATASHA VERBEKE
table weight
Lalani Jennings Contemporary Art is delighted to announce table weight the debut exhibition by Natasha Verbeke.
Inspired by the still lifes of Frans Snyders, the exhibition seeks to question the culture of overconsumption and the contemporary obsession with the display of excess.
In keeping with Snyders aesthetic, within which the artist depicted tables overflowing with fruit, vegetables and game meats as a means of displaying wealth, Verbeke focuses on the violence of excess. As such, her images overflow with abstract depictions of butchery and game trophies. Through her gestural abstraction Verbeke evokes feelings of violence as each object spills from its foreground, physically reflecting the overflow of excess. Despite this violence, her playful manipulation of a rich colour pallet enables the viewer to dance across the image, watching as objects are pushed and pulled across the surface of the canvas creating pockets of light interspersed with shadow.
table weight runs at Lalani Jennings Contemporary Art until Saturday June 10th.
echo from the hall
2023 | 18 X 24
Oil on canvas
swan set
2023 | 5 X 7
Oil on panel
red table 1
2023 | 18 X 24
Oil on canvas
red table 2
2023 | 18 X 24
Oil on canvas
a pig!
2023 | 48 X 60
Oil on canvas
late with room
2023 | 18 X 24
Oil on canvas
Natasha Verbeke
Natasha Verbeke is an emerging Canadian artist currently based in Kjipuktuk (Halifax, Nova Scotia). She received a BFA from NSCAD University (2020). Verbeke makes paintings which translate the movement and gesture evoked in the array of art historical references she uses. Often playing between thin washes and moments of thick impasto to develop a new textural surface. Verbeke has been the recipient of several awards such as the Kevin and Karen Lynch Scholarship for Painting, and a Concept to Realization Grant from Canada Council for the Arts. In September, Natasha will begin her MFA at the University of Guelph.
“In my studio, I spend a lot of time looking through art books, and then sketching, drawing with ink or watercolour, and photocopying imagery from these books. The reference materials I use include painters like Rubens, Delacroix, Titian and Bruegel the Elder to name a few. I’m continually looking for material that gives me a sense of movement, particularly pictures which present multi-directional energy. Rubens is exceptional for this kind of movement.
I find myself coming back to his paintings whether it be a hunting scene, war scene, or other dramatization—these paintings engage me in a way that makes me feel prompted to respond. I spend a lot of time with a painting trying to figure out the composition, pulling it apart and putting it back together like a small puzzle. Certain details that catch my eye might become a central piece in one of my paintings and a new narrative develops out of this.”
- Natasha Verbeke
9 o'clock
2023 | 48 X 60
Oil on canvas
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untitled
2023 | 7 X 5
Oil on panel
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untitled
2023 | 7 X 5
Oil on panel
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untitled
2023 | 7 X 5
Oil on panel
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untitled
2023 | 9 X 12
Oil on panel
