Dates
September 21 to October 21, 2024
Artist Talk / Opening Reception
September 21, 2024 Saturday at 6 PM, Opening Reception to follow
Location
New Leaf Editions, 1244 Cartwright Street, Vancouver, BC
New Leaf Editions presents “The Space Between” by Monique Martin, on view from Sept. 21 to Oct. 21, 2024 “The Space Between” explores the subtle nuances and complexities that exist between people, emotions, and ideas. Martin’s artwork reflects the interconnected structures of our world, emphasizing the fundamental interdependence of all things—humans, plants, wildlife, and the earth. This theme is poignantly illustrated through her metaphor of a tendril on a pea plant, symbolizing the human need for support and connection.
This exhibition will include a small installation of Monique’s silkscreened paper butterflies.
The Space Between
Time curls in on itself and around itself with a sense of urgency that is invisible. Opportunity is given in its absence and in its space. Humans when faced with dark days can reach for interconnected structures that give them comfort and confidence. There are subtle nuances and intricacies that exist in the gaps between people emotions and ideas. Everything is fundamentally interdependent; plants earth wildlife and people. A tendril on a pea plant reaches for support as it grows trying to connect for strength and support. If it does not find support it curls into itself and disconnects falling to the ground. It cannot use itself as a support structure which is often the same for humans. We need others. The need of being supported held comforted and cared for is ever present in the world in which we live.
If time could stretch like a tendril on a vine we could suspend that last moment but we never know when that last moment will happen. Sometimes the gap between what society could be and what can happen is as wide as the gap between a young tendril and a support structure. What is possible can exceed individual grasp like climate change homelessness poverty or the economy. We can experience dark days by reaching too far on our own and suffer a graceless fall like a tendril curled around itself on the ground alone and unsupported. We continue to reach out to stretch our potential and interconnect to solve individual needs as well as global issues with endurance similar to a tendril.
Artist Biography
Monique Martin is an eco-conscious, internationally recognized multi-disciplinary artist from Saskatoon, Canada. With a 25-year exhibition history, she has exhibited her artwork in hundreds of significant solo, invited, and juried exhibitions worldwide. Her works are held in major collections, including the Saskatchewan Arts Board, the Royal Alberta Museum, and the University of California-Los Angeles Library. Martin’s art often incorporates significant symbols to comment on contemporary social issues. She pushes the boundaries of standard printmaking into large-scale and three-dimensional works.
Her work often uses significant symbols or comments on contemporary social issues. Monique creates bodies of work rather than individual pieces and focuses on specific concepts. She undertakes extensive research prior to creating her work, often incorporating historically significant symbols and images to express her ideas. Her works push the boundaries of standard printmaking; enormous scale printmaking, installation based printmaking and working with three dimensions in printmaking.
Artist-in-Residence positions include; Disneyland Paris, Paris, France (2013), the Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan Festival (2013), the Saskatchewan Children’s Festival (2012), Bytown Museum, Ottawa, Canada (2010), Spalding, United Kingdom (2008), Nice, France (2006), Vallauris, France (2006), Mount Vernon, USA (2004), Wynyard, Tasmania, Australia (2003) and Coaticook, QC, Canada (2001).
Artist Statement
My art is an intricate fabric woven from all the people around me, the experiences I have and the things I feel. Chapters of an artistic life are unlike chapters of a book. An art life flows forward, backward, side to side with no understanding at many times of where one chapter ends and another begins. An artistic life can be marked by a series of work beginning or ending, exhibitions opening or closing; an artistic life is fluid and constantly mocking ‘being done’ as one idea begins as another merges and builds upon the last. I never know when it is the last time I will touch upon an idea or build upon a past concept and I don’t know when the fork in the road is a medium, an idea, a residency, an exhibition or an image, and often for me it is as simple as a conversation with another person. I follow my brush, carving tools, screens, scissors and glue where they take me and I trust that the trail behind me will be an interesting one.
www.moniqueart.com
X (twitter)/instagram: @moniquesart
monique@moniqueart.com
