LYSE LEMIEUX: SO DAWN GOES DOWN TO DAY

LYSE LEMIEUX: SO DAWN GOES DOWN TO DAY

This solo exhibition focused on recent paintings by Vancouver-based artist Lyse Lemieux. The artist’s interdisciplinary practice also encompasses drawing, sculpture and installation, through which she explores the space between abstraction and representation. Her hallmark use of stylized ovals, appendages, fabric and felt illustrate the artist’s deep engagement with the human (and not-so-human) figure that carries throughout her art-making, which spans more than forty years. So dawn goes down to day drew attention to the artist’s recent incorporation of luscious colour into her paintings. The exhibition featured works from several series made within the last five years that were connected by an undercurrent of emotional tension. The accompanying earlier sculpture, Collared Column (2016), pointed to the ongoing influence of textiles in Lemieux’s practice, which emerged in recent paintings through intense patterning and colour that mimics fabric. This vibrant exhibition of paintings on paper and canvas revealed the porous membrane between internal and external landscapes, which the artist explores through the psychological resonance of colour, the fragmented and hybrid human form, motifs from nature and the grid.  

Images: Installation view of So dawn goes down to day, exhibition at the Art Gallery at Evergreen, 2022. Photo Rachel Topham Photography.