Conversations in Contemporary Art presents Janet Werner

Janet Werner's work as a painter focuses on the fictional portrait as a vehicle to explore notions of subjectivity and desire. Her paintings operate within and against the genre of conventional portraiture, taking as a starting point found images of anonymous figures from popular culture. The process of painting is a way of investigating the iconic power of the image, invoking imagination, memory, and projection to invest the nameless figure with human subjectivity and emotion. The final paintings are composite portraits that retain aspects of the original while also embodying notions of transformation, innocence and loss.

In Werner's current paintings there is an argument between beauty and the grotesque, and the figure itself has become the site of contest. Folded, cut, occluded, or altered, with colors ranging from luminous to ashen, and scale shifting from pixie to giant, the figures possess an otherworldly aspect. There is a subtle suggestion of witchcraft in these portraits, though it is not clear if these beings are the ones casting spells or the ones upon whom the spell is cast.

Janet Werner was born in Winnipeg and lives and works in Montreal where she teaches in the Department of Studio Arts at Concordia University. She holds an MFA from Yale University and a BFA from the Maryland Institute, College of Art. Werner has shown widely in Canada including solo shows at the Art Gallery of Windsor, SBC Gallery (Montreal), The Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver), The Mendel Art Gallery (Saskatoon), The Ottawa Art Gallery and Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art (Winnipeg). Internationally, her work has been featured in solo presentations in Cape Town and Cologne. Her work was recently included in the survey exhibition Oh, Canada, at Mass MoCa in North Adams, Mass (2012) and in the PaintingProject/Project Peinture at Galerie de l'UQAM (2013). A solo exhibition of her work, Another Perfect Day, was recently presented at Galerie de l'UQAM and will travel to the McIntosh Gallery in London and the Doris McCarthy Gallery in Toronto in 2014-15. Werner's work is in the collections of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Musée du Québec, Musée d'art contemporain, Owens Art Gallery, Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Mendel Art Gallery, Winnipeg Art Gallery and numerous corporate collections.

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Dans les œuvres de la peintre Janet Werner, le portrait fictif nous convie à l'exploration des thèmes de la subjectivité et du désir. À la fois conformes et opposés aux règles de l'art du portrait classique, les tableaux de l'artiste sont créés à partir d'images trouvées représentant des sujets anonymes issus de la culture populaire. Ce processus artistique permet d'examiner le pouvoir iconique de l'image, d'éveiller l'imagination et les souvenirs, et de prêter au personnage inconnu une subjectivité et des émotions humaines. Au terme de cette démarche, les toiles produites sont des portraits composites qui conservent certains aspects de l'image originale, tout en incarnant les notions de transformation, d'innocence et de perte.

Dans les récents tableaux de Janet Werner, la beauté et le grotesque s'opposent, et le sujet lui-même fait l'objet d'un contraste. Tantôt pliés, découpés, dissimulés ou altérés, peints dans des tons se déclinant du plus lumineux au plus sombre ou reproduits à une échelle miniature ou gigantesque, les sujets revêtent un aspect surnaturel. Ces œuvres dénotent une subtile référence à la sorcellerie. Quant à savoir si les êtres représentés sont auteurs ou victimes du sortilège, le mystère reste entier.

Informations additionnelles

Tous les événements du programme Conversation in Contemporary Art sont gratuits et ouverts au public.

Les sièges sont assignés selon le principe du premier arrivé, premier servi. Les portes ouvrent à 17h30.

Les conférences se dérouleront en anglais.

Additional information

When: Thursday, February 27, 6 p.m.

Where: VA Building, Room 114, 1395 René Lévesque West, Sir George Williams Campus

Admission for all Conversations in Contemporary Art events is FREE and open to the general public.

Seating is first come, first serve.  Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

The lectures will be held in English.