March 21 to May 4, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bradley Ertaskiran is pleased to present Spiders and Snakes<\/em>, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Janet Werner. This body of work continues the artist\u2019s unique, hybrid explorations of portraiture, in which she creates her own game of bringing together competing representations of beauty and despair, humour and unease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Werner\u2019s vibrant, spliced paintings often introduce disparate characters, locations, and intensities into the same image. In Whitby<\/em>, two scenes collide: a figure caught mid-run converges with a poised, static body, a vivid landscape on one side and a sparse interior on the other. The union does not happen perfectly; the two sequences meet off-set center, like two opposing forces running into each other and then immediately sticking in place. The result is a collision that births a monumental, composite creature exuding an unnameable presence, more of a grand monolith than a conventional portrait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Helicopter<\/em> carries a similar tension in its opposing limbs and speeds, as two rotated pairs of legs unite on the canvas, one in a joyful handstand pose and the other rigid like a corpse. In this work, and many others, we turn our heads to the side, or even upside down, to match the orientation of the floating limbs, as if it would reveal the secret behind the artist\u2019s flip-flopping compositions. Werner seems to relish in mystifying the viewer, detaching her subjects from familiar popular culture contexts and staging them in foreign settings. In Jockey<\/em>, Werner abruptly crops a woman\u2019s face at eye level and surrounds her in a glowing grey void, blinding her completely. Unsettling in its lack of context, the work champions bold formal strategies: detaching, cutting, and isolating the image on the canvas, to convey a deep sense of vulnerability and emptiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Collaging and folding image upon image, Werner adds spatial and psychological depth to the often simplistic portrayals of female bodies found in the works\u2019 photographic source material. Feathers and Fold<\/em> carries all the satisfaction of a high-impact editorial; it is easy to get lost in the lush brushwork of the pink fur jacket, the sleek leather gloves, and the playful glimpses of bouncy curls only to be confounded by the strident corner fold that hides the subject\u2019s face. Instead of identifying markers, Werner paints the face with a single drooling streak, mirrored in the smudged linework on the canvas\u2019 edge, an imperfect tear or stain on an otherwise seamless image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n