Joanne Lyons - SHADOW DANCE
Reception: Saturday, April 2, 2:00pm, Artist Talk: Saturday, April 9, 2:00pm
March 31 – April 21
Art Placement is pleased to introduce the work of Joanne Lyons, a Saskatoon artist whose diverse art practice includes drawing, painting, photography, video, and mixed-media installation. Lyons received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Saskatchewan and continues to live and work in Saskatoon. She has exhibited nationally in solo and group shows, including a recent three-person exhibition at the Mendel Art Gallery, and her work can be found in both public and private collections.

Delicate and ethereal, Lyons' work continues to focus on the challenge of giving concrete expression to subjects that are often transient and intangible. Shadow Dance presents a varied selection of works united by this recurring thematic thread, including a series of 2-D and 3-D graphite on Mylar drawings, textile forms, and a painting installation.

In Lyons' drawings, swirling, biomorphic forms float and dance on a frosted surface, producing a rhythmic, slow-motion frolic that calls to mind fleeting experiences like the sensation of weightlessness or the buoyancy of joy. Doily references allude to themes around gender and social history, writing a narrative infused with nostalgia. Softly out of focus, the silhouetted forms present a ghostly vision that is fragmented, yet uncannily familiar. Transformation is a key strategy. The original doily form is literally taken apart; albeit a gentle unravelling rather than a forceful pull. In the midst of this slow-motion drift, the fragments simultaneously assemble into something entirely novel: a taxonomic menagerie of newly imagined animal and plant forms that emphasize the interconnectedness of creation and destruction.

Installation Images: