Lisa Wood: Openings
to
Neutral Ground 1835 Scarth Street, Regina, Saskatchewan S4P 2G2

Lisa Wood, "Slip Inside," 2018
detail, oil and coloured pencil on mylar, three panels 3' x 5' each
Opening Reception: Saturday September 29th - 8pm-Midnight
Lisa Wood artist talk: Sunday September 30th, 1-2pm
OPENINGS
In October 2017 Lisa Wood documented the opening of the exhibition Canada's Rectangle at Neutral Ground. Using time lapse photography she captured Regina's art community from the perspective of the bar and snack table. From the resulting hundreds of source images she has created layered paintings on Mylar that look at the relationships and behaviours of the subjects.
The art opening is a celebration of art and community, a place to see one's peers, to emerge from the solitary studio life and talk art. Conversely it is a social obligation that can induce dread, awkwardness and puffed up persona. For Openings, art is the meeting place, and food and drink provide the familiar reprieve.
Wood exposes tension between what we hide and what we flaunt, what is socially acceptable and what is taboo, what is attractive and what is repulsive through the frameworks of ritual and social norms. She has been drawn to acts of eating and drinking because of the specific social expectations they evoke, and the contradictory nature of consuming food and drink in public - we eat and drink to be relaxed or soothed, yet we leave ourselves open to exposing pleasure and the grotesque.
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LISA WOOD is a visual artist and Assistant Professor at Brandon University’s Department of Visual and Aboriginal Art, with an MFA from Yale University and a BFA from the University of Manitoba. Her painting practice investigates the intersection between the singular, private inner space of the individual and the shared public exterior space. Wood has been the recipient of many awards and scholarships and exhibits her artwork nationally and internationally. Prior to teaching at Brandon University she worked in various roles in Winnipeg including: Director at PLATFORM Centre for Photographic and Digital Arts, Instructor at the University of Manitoba, and Program Coordinator at Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art (MAWA).
The reception for this exhibition coincides with Regina's first annual Nuit Blanche events. The gallery will stay open late for extended festivities and will include a special audio installation and performance by Brendon Ehinger.