BOYLE/GORMAN/PROULX

While the works of Shary Boyle, Gayle Gorman and Suzanne Proulx utilize a range of materials and approaches and do not specifically address identical subject matter, they share much the same emotional terrain. Fear. Anxiety. Desire. Apprehension. Uncertainty. These are among the signposts along the psychological tangents defined by the work of these artists, but in each of their works is an ambiguity that feeds a deeper, darker space between. What appears innocuous or benign may only be a thin veil concealing more desperate themes.

In the work of all three artists, recurring references to childhood and adolescence appear: Proulx's concise but jarring reconfiguration of childhood toys, transforming them into unsettling hybrids; Gorman's appropriation of text from children's books, images from yearbooks, mugshots of discarded dolls; and Boyle's seemingly never-ending pit of images reflecting the ongoing dysfunctions of identity, gender and sexuality in childhood and adolescence. All of which should not suggest a child-centric theme to the exhibition. The works of these artists burrow far deeper. If there are images, emotions and situations here that can be linked to issues of childhood or adolescence, they should be read as prescient markers of what's to come. In speaking of her work, Gayle Gorman has referred to the confluence of "damage and desire," both its commingling and the effect one condition has upon the other. The works of all three of these artists address the multifarious ways in which we are potentially damaged, but the darker themes of their works are often processed through filters of defiance, humor, erotic power and something not quite supernatural but more than ordinary. If there is pain in evidence(and there is), it is not a declaration of victimhood, but a strength and ownership of pain, a transformative vehicle toward more fearless purposes.

Exhibition features works by Shary Boyle (gouache paintings and sculpture); Gayle Gorman (mural of found images titled WALL OF DEPRIVATION); and Suzanne Proulx (manipulated stuffed animals).

Some publications related to this event:
BOYLE/GORMAN/PROULX - 2002
November and December, 2002 - 2002