JANNA WATSON: LIGHT IS HEAVY
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Bau-Xi Gallery Vancouver 3045 Granville St, Vancouver, British Columbia V6H 3J9
Janna Watson, "At The Bottom of Everything Is A Hallelujah," nd
mixed media on panel, 48" x 48"
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 13 from 2-4PM, ARTIST IN ATTENDANCE
Light is Heavy presents a diverse body of work from abstract painter Janna Watson—a visually poetic culmination of her practice to date. In this suite of paintings, the artist explores the paradoxical weight of light and lightness through the materiality of mixed media.
Janna Watson's compelling abstract compositions use colour, line, and energetic brushstrokes to evoke emotion in the viewer. Her work possesses an elegant and powerful energy, created with a carefully balanced pairing of loose painting and gestural mark-making. Watson's paintstrokes are feeling, sensing, emotive “moments” that wholly refer to this mark-making itself without retreating into the sometimes alienating world of pure abstraction. They are altogether honest and confident, vulnerable and invocative portraits of colour, texture, space, and movement.
Watson is a young artist who has quickly made an impression on the contemporary art scene. Her work can be found in several significant collections including the TD Bank Financial Group, CIBC, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and the HBC Global Art Collection in New York. Most recently, she was selected to create a magnificent 11 x 31 foot painting for the feature space in AURA, North America’s largest condominium building. The Toronto-based artist has exhibited across Canada and internationally.