Descrizione Opera / Biografia
The imagery for this project is based on the French verb ”Flâner”, a word that does not directly translate into English. Close to the act of rambling, strolling, loafing and hanging around, the meaning of ”flâner” contradicts the organization of cities of the 20th century. Cities laced with highways and shopping centres favour cars and discourage community life. Influenced by Gordon Matta-Clark, the artist sees the transformation of cities to saner environments as a global process made possible through urban planning, architecture and the visual arts. Jane Jacobs’ criticism of 20th-century North American urban planning, the community spirit of ”Assemble”, an artists / designers / architects collective in Liverpool, and the organic and playful vision of the Danish landscape architect Adriaan Geuze who created the ”Madrid Rio” promenade have all inspired her. Mixing cities and neighbourhoods, Morand’s compositions show heteroclite and imaginative rather than linear and orderly views of cities. Intending to evoke porosity between what is human and spatial or architectural, these images resonate with multiple experiences, contrasting the monumental and vernacular, the sublime and strange, and the opulent and abandoned. Wanting to recreate the spontaneous act of cutting up her photos for collages with scissors, Morand has developed a methodology with silkscreen printing that transforms this act into a gesture with brushstrokes. Blocking with liquid screen block her rectangular drawings previously burned onto the silk screen, she transforms the contours into geometric and organic forms, changing the shapes at least twice between layers of printing. She prints her silkscreen mono-prints layering and juxtaposing positive and negative urban scenes with various colours and black. As opposed to the opacity of paper collages, these compositions have the advantage of a transparency and interweaving between different scenes.Canadian artist Tanya Morand is currently represented by Galerie.a in Quebec city, with her most recent solo exhibition ”Spin-Plaza” in May 2019. Recent exhibitions in Madrid were presented at Espacio de Creacion Quinta del Sordo in 2017 and at Brita Prinz Arte in 2015. New silkscreen prints were presented at the 10th World Triennial of Prints and Original Engravings in Chamalières, France in 2017. Exhibitions of her work have been featured in Canada, in the United States and Europe. Her artwork is included in the collections of The CPOA of the National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec, BANQ, the Inno-Centre Collection in Montreal and the Art Bank of the Canada Council for the Arts, as well as numerous private collections. Her work has merited awards and grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, The Council of Arts and Letters of Quebec, SODEC and The Cecil Buller Foundation. Having completed a BFA at Concordia University, her MFA studies were funded by a Concordia University Graduate Fellowship and an F.C.A.R grant. Artist’s website: http://www.tanyamorand.com Galerie.a website: http://www.galeriea.ca/
