OPENING | Dualities: A Bridge Between Two Worlds

Toronto female painters Erin Armstrong and Kathryn Macnaughton converge in Dualities: A Bridge Between Two Worlds, marking a fresh and exciting direction in contemporary Canadian painting.

In Dualities: A Bridge Between Two Worlds, both Erin Armstrong and Kathryn Macnaughton demonstrate an interest in form and interiority. Erin Armstrong’s anonymous figures inhabit a world of speculative fiction witnessed by Kathryn Macnaughton’s static houseplant, a stand-in for the body which bears witness to narratives outside of, and within it.

As vessels into an alternative space, Kathryn Macnaughton’s abstract paintings balance minimal shapes with colour and draw influence from principles of graphic design, Art Deco architecture and Colour Field abstraction. Flat, sculptural shapes are layered between stained and textured coloured backgrounds which create a sense of movement and depth. Similarly, Erin Armstrong generates imagined realms where ambiguous bodies hang about languidly in offbeat locales as if from a distant dream. Bodies and faces are discretely revealed and concealed by expressive applications of paint to hint at subtle emotions and complex inner worlds.