In the Main Gallery Coquitlam-based artist Jennifer McAuley presents a collection of paintings - primarily oil on panel - that explore the manufactured landscape as it comes up against the wild and more traditional landscapes of the North West. Most of the paintings are inspired by the local parks and green areas in the Tri Cities area. The artist says about her exhibition, Landscapes of Suburbia, “When one lives in suburbia they seek refuge and a return to nature in the parks and wild areas that are either pocketed by the expanding city or that border the sprawl. These areas are beautiful and dynamic, a refuge not only to the dog walkers and hikers but a vital artery for migrating birds and interurban wild life. The spaces have a sad beauty. Flanked by industrial parks, overlooked by housing developments and bordered by bridges and train tracks, the city leans into these pocket-oasis’, bullying them into submission. Similarly, nature seems to fight back, sprouting weeds between the train tracks, dropping leaves on nearby buildings and steaming fog into suburbia in the early morning hours. These paintings ponder the beauty, fragility and tenacity of these areas and contemplate the human desire to own, to structure, to interact with and to control nature.”
www.jennifermcauley.com
