Exhibition On / Out

2013

Jonathan Smart Gallery

Jonathan Smart Gallery is delighted to present its first solo exhibition by Marie Le Lievre, a recent graduate in painting from the Ilam School of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury.

In this series of works, some of which began to take form during her Masters year, Le Lievre demonstrates an economy of touch in drawings that combine elegant linear qualities with small areas of poured paint. She suggests a narrative which at first glance appears familiar: the setting in her drawings is domestic interior - a woman on her bed. Le Lievre’s confident, summary sense of line defines form beautifully. But the head is often obscured by paint. So notions of comfort here are offered, then defied. The tactile blend of materials and the interiors (both physical and psychological) that they describe are startling and gently compelling. The suite of drawings and the big single painting that accompanies them are haunting - uneering in their contour and eerie in their quiet, reduced palette.