Shift
Nathalie Lawrence, Jessica McCann, Talie Shalmon
January 13th - February 6th, 2007
Reception: January 20th, 2007, 6-8p


Jessica McCann, Resistance is Futile, oil on canvas, 2006

Jessica McCann
My work is about the reexamination of urban spaces and popular media. I draw from my experience and my surroundings. Lately I have been interested in documenting street graffiti in downtown Toronto. Through my paintings, I am trying to frame parts of the city that are often overlooked as being dirty or mere vandalism, and transforming them into something timeless and even poetic. Along side my interest in urban landscapes, notions of the political and corporate are addressed with heavy satire and critique.

Jessica McCann is in her fourth year of a Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) degree at Queen’s University. She is interested in painting and printmaking. In the future McCann aspires to pursue a career in Graphic Design.

Talie Shalmon, Gap Kids I and 2, acrylic on cardboard, 2006

Talie Shalmon
My work examines the hidden meanings, subtle nuances and humour of everyday life. The quotidian can be charming, disturbing, eerie, ridiculous and countless other things. I wish to encourage an appreciation for the everyday, as everything around us can be interpreted in different ways and found to be somehow interesting. My work involves taking something (an object, an idea, an experience) and impressing on it my subjective point of view, giving it new meaning and revealing something previously unseen.

Talie Shalmon is in her fourth year of the Queen’s University Bachelor of Fine Arts program. She has no concrete plans for the future after graduation and no concrete themes in her work, other than drawing on life experience for ideas. She plans to have fun and see where things will take her. She hopes it’s somewhere interesting.


Nathalie Lawrence, detail from About Face series, oil on canvas, 2006

Nathalie Lawrence
I have always found myself pulled toward the unconventional when formulating ideas for my work. Influenced by Magritte, who subtly articulates the dichotomy between reality and our sometimes skewed perception of it, my aim is to induce a second glance in the viewer. My method of communication consists of visual puns, the juxtaposition of contradictory elements, and unconventional subjects who act out unlikely scenarios. In choosing a contemporary transvestite couple as my subject in the Saturnalia series, I am projecting universal experiences onto a relatively misunderstood and under-exposed group of people. In the About Face series, I used a traditional format to frame bizarre portraits, which turn out to be embodiments of visual puns.

I find that basing my work on a universally understood foundation heightens the emphasis of the unconventional elements. In creating such a potent juxtaposition, I hope to force the viewer to take on a new perspective, and therefore question the perception of their own reality.

Nathalie Lawrence is a fourth year Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) major, specializing in painting. She was born in Owen Sound, Ontario, a Toronto Star proclaimed cultural capital of Canada. Dubbed the “Punmaster”, she revels in all that is absurd, ironic and mildly skewed. After graduation, Nathalie hopes to pursue a career in marketing.