The word “canvas” is commonly used as a synonym for a “painting,” proof of how these two entities have become inextricably linked. Artists have long been using a vast array of media to express themselves, and yet, canvas—what Clement Greenberg referred to as a “constricting habit”—remains an important point of reference. In many ways, the predominantly quadrangular shape of canvas, the texture and opacity of its tightly woven surface, the degree of its flatness, all still loom large in our artistic consciousness.

Online viewing room in partnership with the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts. Photography by Alex Grabiec. Collage by AWT.

About the Show
By Yassana Croizat-Glazer, Founder of YCG Fine Art

“OFF CANVAS” invites viewers to think about—and beyond—the limits of canvas (both real and metaphorical) by exploring a selection of pieces by four women artists working in different media. Although displaying divergent techniques and varying degrees of abstraction, these works are linked in their desire to address universal concepts of particular significance in this precarious moment in history, such as transparency, memory, identity, ritual and displacement.

Plexiglass offers Morgan Everhart a vehicle for examining the revelatory effects of light as well as the theoretical and aesthetic possibilities opened up by double-sided, freestanding paintings.

Rich in sensorial effects and cultural meanings, textiles are Padma Rajendran’s chosen media for investigating issues pertaining to migration, such as women’s special role in preserving homeland traditions. For her work, Erika Ranee uses canvas as a support, but effectively buries it by layering materials such as spray paint and shellac in which she often embeds ephemera; through this process, the artist focuses on the act of documentation and on the allure of tangible records of time. Véronique Terrieux has found in the medium of ink on paper, which she sometimes enhances with colored pencil, a visual mode for delving into a nebulous world at the edge of day and night, where nature thrives alone and remembrance stretches deep into the earth.

A video in each artist’s section presents composer Madeleine Cocolas’s musical response to one of the works in the exhibition.

Yassana Croizat-Glazer is available to answer any questions you may have about these exciting works and their distinctive qualities. Buying art should be a pleasurable experience from the moment the decision is made to purchase a work until it’s seamlessly installed in its new setting. The prices listed in the exhibition include shipping in the contiguous US, and Yassana is delighted to advise on framing, as well as on how to install your new acquisition in a manner that celebrates its character fully and brings you the most satisfaction.