Exhibition visits

The best exhibition that I visited and it is relevant to my work and current project is Elly Smallwood in the Benjamin Eck Gallery, in Munich, Germany. Originally from Ottawa, Elly Smallwood moved to Toronto to pursue her love of art at OCAD University. She graduated with her BFA in Drawing and Painting in 2011. Her paintings are intensely personal, a visual exploration of her mind and body, and those of the people around her.

Elly explains her work by saying, “I aim to break down my own personal boundaries and push myself to use abandon when I would normally use caution, to destroy those marks which I begin to hold as precious. These pieces are an exploration of the innocent and the grotesque; delicate figures become unnerving and soft colors are smeared across figures. In my works, I see a twisted view of myself, visceral representation of how I view humanity, particularly in regards to my own body.”

There were five paintings in total, four big ones and a medium canvas. The materials that were used were acrylic on canvas and I think it had charcoal on. There where two portraits and three bodies. One of the nudes was a full body and the other two were torsos and half of the legs.

The paintings gave out such feminine power and very sensual. I know she is using herself as a model most of the time and I think that is very powerful to expose yourself and also it shows self-love. All of them had this unfinished look about it but it seemed right. It seemed very organic, raw, very real, how you could see the brush strokes and the emotion put into the paintings. They vibrated with such power that I just stayed there and stared at them with my mouth open. I just wanted to analyze every brushstroke, every charcoal line