ALBERTA: Marie Lannoo: Sight Unseen, Oct 21 to Nov 25, Newzones Gallery, Calgary

Marie Lannoo, Sight Unseen 8, 2006, Acrylic on Panel 36" x 48" x 2.75"

This collection of new paintings by Marie Lannoo does not represent objects. Instead, it’s a nexus of techniques and emotions that transcend the convenient categories often placed around creativity.

The glossy acrylic multi-layered paintings of wondrous colours are surely abstract, but stand directly in front of each of them and suddenly images are reflected back from their mirror-like surfaces. Lannoo has created works that appear as one thing and then suddenly change into entirely different entities.

Thankfully Lannoo seems determined to ignore the question of whether these are abstract paintings or works of a more representational bent by taking us to a place that rightfully concentrates on her appearance-shifting paintings. Colour, light and the images reflected back achieve a fluid dance that allows the work to be miraculously dynamic as they hang on the gallery’s walls. Lannoo negotiates through a place that respects the traditions of painting while paradoxically shrugging off labels in order to deliver works that are fresh and unique.

	Marie Lannoo, Sight Unseen 7, 2006, Acrylic on Panel 36" x 36" x 2.75"

What is strikingly clear is these polished planes can be viewed and interpreted in a myriad of ways. See the works in full light and their lustre can be distracting. Viewed again, just a few minutes later, with cloud cover subduing the sunlight streaming through the gallery’s windows and these paintings become sensual realizations that inhabit a place somewhere between fantasy and reality.

Born in Delhi, Ont. in 1954, Lannoo has a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Saskatchewan in addition to further training at The Banff Centre and in Virton, Belgium. The artist is based in Saskatoon, where she has pursued her passion for colourful expression full-time since 1984.

Lannoo is just one of the most recent in a long line of artists to make the connection to the power of colour and the human psyche. Those who create with a full colour palette have often been intent on going beyond the rational-scientific view of the world in an effort to reveal truths that they believed needed to be uncovered.

Whether Lannoo’s paintings achieve this lofty goal will be up to each person who sees them, and who is willing to engage in a personal process of discovery. Well executed colourful paintings, or deeper contemplations on the mysteries of life? See for yourself by visiting Sight Unseen.

— BY Wes Lafortune