Lori Richards | Seedbed

 
                       

Lori Richards | Seedbed
Feb 8 - 22

Reception: Saturday, February 8
@ 3 - 5 pm
Artist Talk & Poetry Reading
@ 3:30 pm

Join us for an artist talk by Lori Richards, and a poetry reading by Suzanne Biro.

RSVP your attendance to responses@wallspacegallery.ca

Wall Space Gallery is proud to present Lori Richard’s solo exhibition “Seedbed”, with accompanying prose by writer Suzanne Biro. Within this series of paintings, Richards' explores the metaphorical labyrinth within dream-imagery.

Her painted sleep-scapes are sourced from her own recorded memories of
her dreams; populated with owls, moons, birds, valleys and beds perched amongst
sweeping landscapes of colour. For Richards, the bed is a space where buried intentions and desires sprout into worlds that shimmer before our closed eyelids. Relating the down-bed to the garden bed, the soil of our subconscious allows the buried parts of ourselves to emerge through new morphologies.

Seedlings are about becoming. Breaking from dormancy, they germinate, develop and grow into plants. They rise from a subterranean world—like our human comprehension, much of which occurs in our subconscious.

 
Sleep allows access to the magic of our dreams and unconscious thought: I explore this in my work, distilling and interpreting images, experiences and emotions. Dots are connected, new synapses created and ideas come to light.

“Seedbed: A bed of fine soil in which seedlings are germinated”

My paintings use symbols —beds, birds, owls, dream bubbles, moons, stars and plants—to create worlds of mystery and understanding, darkness and luminosity. 

My quest is to capture glimpses of joy and wonder amidst the mystery and imperfection of being alive.

- Lori Richards

Constructed from the seeds of our reality, the timeless space of dreams allow us to experience the parts of ourselves we might be blithely unaware of or afraid to confront. Richards’ sleep-scapes connect to her interest in Surrealism and its history of painters exploring meaning-making through the intersection of dreams and reality; including figures such as Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington.

The mind has the powerful ability to connect to our sensations, we might be assailed by the vivid panic that our teeth are falling out or made breathless by the exhilaration of suddenly being able to soar through the air. Richards’ collaboration with writer Suzanne Biro, offers a window into the linguistic dance of capturing imagery and sensations born completely in the mind. Biro’s short prose re-translate Richard’s works with a lilting gait and structure that mirrors the effervescent fragmentation of dream timelines.

Prose by Suzanne Biro

  • Connecting the Dots

    Acrylic on wood panel
    16 x 20 in.

    She imagined
    ideas are the energy of the universe.
    How
    ideas float round
    ever ready.
    Harvested, nurtured, nourished, processed.
    How
    embered coal-black ideas
    fuse triangulations
    harlequined
    from all directions.
    Flints and sparks shaped
    to jewels.

  • Feather Bed

    Acrylic on wood panel
    9 3/4 x 7 3/4 in. 

    Rock solid sieved from the stars
    thermals curve the feathered descendings.
    Wisdom arcs the dark
    so much to feed one’s heart
    when breaking open.

  • Star Field

    Acrylic on wood panel
    14 x 11 in.

    In sleep she palms
    birch bark dreams.
    Casts the stems.
    Catches lofted loose-knit
    sable weave displays,
    the sharp points of ochre light
    between the pastured
    darks of night.

"The work is a portal to the interior world of memory and desire, time and place, longing and surrender — illuminating narrative and emotion. I want my paintings to create an emotional response or connection and bring awareness to the beauty and fragility of the planet. In the end, there must be an emotional connection to the final painting, for me and ultimately for the viewer."

- Lori Richards

Richards is well-known for her intuitive approach to synthesizing the landscapes around her into layers of glazed colour. In “Seedbed”, she pushes her ability to capture a well of sensation to new heights, tapping into the subconscious and the mysterious meanings that lie there.

- Tiffany April, Curator

Seedbed Catalogue

View all

Lori Richards was born in Montréal, QC, and currently lives and works in Kingston, ON. She completed her education at Dawson College and The Ontario College of Art (Honours). Her intuitive painting process begins from photographs sourced from her surroundings built up in layers of glazes and colour to capture the search for that ineffable magic genius loci – literally "the spirit of a place.” She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Kingston, Ottawa, Toronto, Picton and Gananoque.