Open Perspective

Open Perspective
Hilary Crowe and Veronica Lee
February 15-25, 2023

Satellite Project Space
121 Dundas St
Wednesday-Friday 2-7pm, Saturday 12-5pm

Reception: February 25, 3pm

Open Perspective focuses on a series of objects and figures through the artists’ point of view. While Hilary Crowe’s work centers around her point of view of the present, Veronica Lee’s work concerns perceptions of the past. Both artists portray their narratives through their use of open space and repetition.

Crowe’s work centers on the everyday, examining her surroundings and looking at things that are often overlooked. She took an interest in the concept of opening – something we do every day yet pay little attention to the act itself. Depicting doors and openings she sees in her daily life, whether from familiar places she passes by regularly or around her house, she utilizes relaxed, neutral colours to represent the ordinary and unnoticed. Through repetition, these quiet paintings and relief sculptures represent the regular commonplace routines of everyday life. Much like the act of opening a door, Crowe’s paintings and sculptures make the invisible visible.

Veronica Lee is a Korean-Canadian artist who attempts to delve deeper into her culture by focussing on South Korean history using the tropes of western-style paint application. Replicating traditional Korean paintings, Lee’s works centers around depictions of the lower class starting from the beginning of the 11th century to the 17th century. Lee uses acrylic paint, which is primarily a western invention, to create simplistic yet intricate details and linework in her works. Though the individuals in her paintings were seen as vulgar during their time period, by incorporating movement through the gestural painting of the backgrounds juxtaposed with the implied movement of the figures themselves, Lee instead focuses on their liberty and strength in her artworks.

While seemingly different in their paint application and iconography, these curious paintings reflect each artists’ perspective of the world. Through their work they create quiet and subtle spaces that speak to everyday universal themes of time and space while examining their own place within it.