LUNAR MAGIC
by Laura Horne-Gaul
October 27th, 2014
Moon Room at Narwhal Art Projects is the second exhibition curated by Kristin Weckworth that has incorporated a large number of artists. Moon Room includes 21 artists. In 2010 Weckworth's exhibition titled, The Dazzle, Cabinet of Wonder, 27 artists were included.
Moon Room is comprised of two rooms and a sculpture in the front window of the galleries new location on Dundas West. The space is divided by an homage to the children's classic Goodnight Moon (Margaret Wise Brown/Clement Hurd 1947) in the South room and in the North room to the Moon.
The sculpture in the front window of the exhibition titled, Ouroborous Holding the Moon, 2014 by Vanessa Brown brings the exhibition into perspective with its delicate construct. Cyclicality, the sense of something constantly transforming itself, an eternal return, a force that cannot be extinguished, the Moon.
Upon entering the gallery you are presented with another Moon, a mural painted with acrylics by Alicia Nauta titled, Goodnight Moon, 2014. This is the first mural completed by Nauta. The Mural spans the entire wall and is an interpretation of the cover image for the children's classic book Goodnight Moon. The homage to Goodnight Moon reveals itself further with a representative table of the brush and the bowl of mush titled, Aside the Table, by Nikki Woolsey. Heather Goodchild's tapestry titled, and the evening and the morning, hanging on the wall shares inspired scenes while Naomi Yasui’s, Untitled, stoneware rug/vessel sculpture sits ethereally on the floor in the foreground. The remaining works are abstract paintings conservatively hung which personify characters from the classic and of course the fired ceramic clocks by Eunice Luk titled, it's only five after ten.
The first Moon you encounter, among many, in the North room is a painting by Margaux Williamson titled, Lunar Eclipse (I was the worst one), a definitive study of the Moon in oils completed in 2014. This room’s walls are painted black and are saturated with art, it feels somewhat like an inner sanctum as you are enclosed and transported. While all of the works are related to the Moon and its powers not all are purely figurative. Eli Langer's bright gel pen on paper works are evocative of intergalactic space waves and Patrick Krzyzanowski’s scratchpad pieces (which were created by attaching the scratching tools to his pet rat's exercise wheel) exude pure luminescence congruent to that of the Moon. Krzyzanowski’s and Langer's works are conclusively hung throughout the room to tie in the rest of the more figurative pieces which range from exquisitely detailed and executed graphite drawings, stained glass, collage, photography and painting.
Moon Room emits mystery and magic, engaging the powers that be.
