Cathy Dobson
When Kirsten Kilner Holmes was helping install the latest exhibition at Gallery in the Grove, she was struck by how well the two artists complement each another.
“Both use line, space and form to lay out their compositions,” said the gallery chair. “Honestly, it’s really a special exhibition for this gallery.
“It’s the work of two local women and it’s fresh. I think people will be inspired by it.”
The show featuring the work of Laura Kreviazuk and Laura Manzano Arias runs until Oct. 23.
Kreviazuk has a degree in studio art from the University of Guelph and is establishing a reputation for her large-scale charcoal and graphite drawings.
She describes her work as “ever changing” and says each piece evolves through a process of erasure and revision.
“There is an exciting, permissive immediacy to drawing,” she said. “It yields to instinctive editing while retaining a trail of the artistic progress.”
Kreviazuk has seven works at Gallery in the Grove, some as large as 12 by 5 feet. Some are a departure from her usual blacks, greys and whites and have a hint of colour highlighted by the gallery’s natural light.
Rather than dedicate one of the gallery’s two rooms to each artist, Kilner Holmes said “the two Lauras” complement one another so well their works are blended.
Laura Manzano Arias is a mixed-media collage artist with a degree in visual arts and French from Western University.
Her work for this show layers old books, watercolour, acrylic and sewing patterns into collages that explore negative and positive space as well as balance and texture.
“I found some old sewing patterns in a thrift store and was intrigued by the complicated technical language that the sewing patterns had on their delicate tissue surface,” she said. “This language seemed foreign to me as a non-sewer, which made me want to investigate further.
“Ever since then, I have been interested in the technical language of the sewing patterns, their lines, shapes and spaces are seen as abstract to me,” said Manzano Arias.
“My goal has been to explore and create a visual relationship between human and organic form, structure and composition with the code language of sewing.”
Kilner Holmes said she worked with fellow gallery volunteer Sylvia Foreman and the rest of the board to plan the exhibition and highlight the two artists.
“When we thought about pairings, we knew this would work well,” she said.
Manzano Arias agrees. “But we approach scale and medium very differently, which makes for a nice contrast,” she states.
As for Kreviazuk, she feels connected and inspired by Manzano Arias’ work, she said.
“I think (our works) will really… generate stimulating conversations around them.”
IF YOU GO:
WHAT: “Adjacent Views,” a mixed media exhibition by Sarnia’s Laura Kreviazuk and Laura Manzano Arias
WHERE: Gallery in the Grove, 2618 Hamilton Rd. Bright’s Grove
WHEN: Show runs until Oct. 23. Open Tues. and Wed. 2 p.m. – 5 p.m.; Thurs. 2 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. and Fri. and Sat. 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
DETAILS: Visit www.galleryinthegrove.com