Chelsea Brant
REcollection
August 17 - August 24, 2022
The Gallery at Art Placement
Locating myself in the present moment, between life’s past experiences and future endeavours, REcollection consists of a series of paintings that internally disclose sentiments of loss and growth as I navigated unfamiliar environments over a period of two years. Through an artistic practice that is heavily reliant on subconscious processing of experience through the meditative medium of paint, I have created work that discusses the idea of “home.” Using home décor elements and ornamentation, I have produced paintings that display tropical house plants in an array of compositional elements that layer, transform, transpose, and recreate new environments to question time and presence. These juxtaposed and collaged tropical images are paralleled with light and shadow paintings that put into question cycles of time, life and death and changing circumstances. The sentiment of support and containment are present in terra-cotta clay ‘holders’ throughout the exhibition, linking works through nurtured groupings. These paintings are metaphorical representations of personal relationships, health and wellbeing, preservation and memory, and belonging. Affect is explored through conceptual practices, materiality and the objecthood of traditional media to present uncanny connections to the human experience.
Exhibition Reception: Friday, August 19 from 5:00 - 7:00 pm
THE GALLERY / art placement inc.
About the Artist
Chelsea Brant (she/her) is a Mohawk/German multidisciplinary emerging artist and curator, with a BA honours degree in studio arts from the University of Guelph. Brant has exhibited locally, nationally, and internationally and has curated and co-curated exhibitions within Ontario. Some of her most recent exhibitions include, “Tropicality” through de.Curated’s online platform, “Tradition Transformed” at the Orillia Museum of Art and Art History in Orillia, Ontario, the “46th Winter Festival Show” at the Mann Art Gallery in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and “Konnon:kwe” at the Guelph Civic Museum in Guelph, Ontario. She is primarily an oil painter and text-based artist. Brant is the recipient of a Deans Entrance Scholarship, a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Fellowship and has been awarded the Indigenous Achievement Award for Academic Excellence through the University of Saskatchewan. She is currently serving as a Board Member of Nuit Blanche YXE.