Shannon Oksanen - Stripes and Bows
Spring 2023
Curated by Myfanwy Macleod
Stripes and Bows, Shannon Oksanen's exhibition of new paintings and sculptures, take the jaunty stripe and the perky bow as their starting point.
Shannon Oksanen is a self-taught artist and former lead singer for the Vancouver buzz-saw punk and rock band Volumizer. For the past twenty-five years, she has made work that draws on her interests in portraiture, flower arranging, French cinema, post-war British sculpture and pop music.
Her latest group of portrait paintings straddle the gap between abstraction and figuration. Using the bow as a motif, she evokes its feminine charm of love, longing and remembrance. Of course, the bow is an icon of femininity, but in her hands, it loses some of its cutesy factor and becomes much more elegant.
Oksanen's new abstract paintings use the stripe as a background for her painterly explorations. They are partially indebted to the conceptual oeuvre of Daniel Buren whose work is a current obsession for her. Although a popular pattern today, historically, stripes were relegated to those on the margins or outside the social order -- jugglers, prostitutes and the devil often wore stripes.
The exhibition also includes new sculptural work by the artist that channels the spirit of the late great artist Franz West. Like West, Oksanen takes an irreverent and playful approach to sculpture, using materials associated with children's crafts like paper mâché, plaster, and wire to create her objets d’art. With these new works, she has also added touches of the rococo-inspired decor of interior decorator Dorothy Draper.
Shannon Oksanen lives and works in Vancouver and Tofino. She graduated with a degree in art history from the University of British Columbia in 1993. Solo exhibitions include Union Gallery, London, UK (2011), Contemporary Art Gallery (2008), Tracey Lawrence Gallery (2007), VTO Gallery, London (2004) Or Gallery (2002). Selected group exhibitions at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art San Francisco (2003), VTO Gallery, London, England (2004), 303 Gallery, New York (2005) and The Charles. H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver Art Gallery (2006), Unit/Pitt Gallery (2011).
Shannon Oksanen is a self-taught artist and former lead singer for the Vancouver buzz-saw punk and rock band Volumizer. For the past twenty-five years, she has made work that draws on her interests in portraiture, flower arranging, French cinema, post-war British sculpture and pop music.
Her latest group of portrait paintings straddle the gap between abstraction and figuration. Using the bow as a motif, she evokes its feminine charm of love, longing and remembrance. Of course, the bow is an icon of femininity, but in her hands, it loses some of its cutesy factor and becomes much more elegant.
Oksanen's new abstract paintings use the stripe as a background for her painterly explorations. They are partially indebted to the conceptual oeuvre of Daniel Buren whose work is a current obsession for her. Although a popular pattern today, historically, stripes were relegated to those on the margins or outside the social order -- jugglers, prostitutes and the devil often wore stripes.
The exhibition also includes new sculptural work by the artist that channels the spirit of the late great artist Franz West. Like West, Oksanen takes an irreverent and playful approach to sculpture, using materials associated with children's crafts like paper mâché, plaster, and wire to create her objets d’art. With these new works, she has also added touches of the rococo-inspired decor of interior decorator Dorothy Draper.
Shannon Oksanen lives and works in Vancouver and Tofino. She graduated with a degree in art history from the University of British Columbia in 1993. Solo exhibitions include Union Gallery, London, UK (2011), Contemporary Art Gallery (2008), Tracey Lawrence Gallery (2007), VTO Gallery, London (2004) Or Gallery (2002). Selected group exhibitions at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art San Francisco (2003), VTO Gallery, London, England (2004), 303 Gallery, New York (2005) and The Charles. H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver Art Gallery (2006), Unit/Pitt Gallery (2011).
Photo credit: Scott Livingstone