Aliana Au
Works on Paper
OPENING NIGHT: SEPTEMBER 2, 2016, 7:00PM
EXHIBIT: SEPT 2 - 27, 2016
" In my grandfather's house, clothes were frequently left in such a way that the life force seemed to have existed in their form.
My clothes were the ones that were from my father's childhood. I had never met my father, but I felt a strange kind of closeness to him, perhaps because of his clothes which I wore."
Quotes are from the Artist Statement, OCCURRENCES: FOUR MANITOBA PAINTERS. The Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1981.
Working in a free, fluid manner bereft of controlling lines, Aliana Au's brushstrokes create realities seemingly devoid of change and time. As a painter, Au draws from her own life experiences and a deep well of memories — core emotions that are unwashed by time: the intimacy of family; storytelling; and the unscathed feeling of belonging. With no reservations about letting areas of paper show, Au employs an impressionistic effort, allowing the free space to evoke the light and transparency of each piece in a poetic and elegiac fragility.
The use of rich indigos, fluid blacks, bold yellows and open space meet and then dissipate to create the feeling of timelessness. The juxtaposed touches of colour and paper are woven together with various types of brushstrokes. Effortlessly, Au embraces an intuitive but meticulous style that is in search of harmony rather than a strict replica of reality. Painting is essentially a conversation with time — the crumpled denim a tribute to the remembered and missing pieces of her childhood. It is this unity of reflection and time that projects in Au’s paintings the sense of eternity she desires.
