Chantal Wnuk, Mild Drowning, oil on canvas, 66x70 in, 2021
AHEAD AND ABOVE WATER
Chantal Wnuk
1.10.2022 - 3.6.2022
Walking into Ahead and Above Water feels like an escape to the beach in the middle of winter. And yet Chantal Wnuk’s atmospheric and tactile paintings exist in a state of longing, not ease. Languishing bodies in postures of fatigue check their phones but not the tides.They sunbathe and they cry. They fall asleep on their wet palette. They push against the edges of their frame and the boundaries of the body. They try to heal.
Wnuk’s generous paintings are a poetic and unflinching look at the struggles of lifelong illness, creativity, and connection. The mood remains fluid, with liquidity functioning as both painterly material and metaphor. The paintings are as refreshing as they are devastating, energizing as they are exhausted. Together, they offer a source of warmth and repose during these cold and dreary months.
Chantal Wnuk is a painter and sculptor currently living and working in Columbus, OH. She was born in Houston, TX, received her BFA in 2012 from the University of Texas at Austin, and is a current MFA candidate at the Ohio State University in Columbus. Recent exhibitions include A Beach for Me (and maybe you) at Ignition Project Space in Chicago, I Dreamt of a Perfect Ocean, I Dreamt of Stepping in a Hole at Best Practice in San Diego, Being Here with You/ Estando aquí contigo at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, and A Show About Touching at Bread & Salt in San Diego. Chantal has been awarded residencies at ACRE, Bread & Salt, 1805 Gallery, and The San Diego Art Institute.
All install images credited to TONY IRONS; painting images. Chantal Wnuk
Exhibition document designed and riso printed by publisher-in-residence, Flatpack Publications (Connor Frew). Edition of 50.
Limited edition risograph print
"Problems With the Artist's Vision"
Riso Print by Chantal Wnuk x theretherenow
Orchid, sunflower, light, teal and lake on white paper.
12 x 10 in
$25