Galerie Trois Points is pleased to present Place to Form, a new exhibition by Natalie Reis, from April 9 to May 21. In this recent body of work, the artist explores our predisposition to substantiate and put on display artifacts from our domestic setting. These works lend meaning to objects as cultural references, collectibles and mementos of various sorts.

Reis revisits the traditional conventions of painting while drawing influences from popular folk art in North America. Place to Formsuggests a temporal relevance set around the nostalgic tradition of folk art.  Varying degrees of skill highlight attributes related to decorative design, flattened perspectives, abstracted forms in simple arrangements, creating an immediacy of meaning.

There is a conscious effort to imitate the appearance of everyday objects and industrial manufacturing techniques.  The works presented in Place to Form attribute an artistic knowledge and intrinsic logic to craft, and it is within the simulation of this aesthetic that irony is accentuated. The objects depicted echo the material world through works of art that appear artless, while being artful.  This is most evident in the simplistic manner in which most of the works are produced – hand painted patterns, basic collages, simplistic illustrations and brut sculptures. While contradicting the utilitarian and decorative purpose of craft, these works focus on a quiet reflection of the world around us.  While the works are eclectic, their disparate parts still manage to provide a connecting aesthetic thread and staged reflection on the psychology of how we cultivate personal space through the singularity of ‘objectness’.

Natalie Reis graduated from Concordia University and holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Waterloo.  Reis lives and works in Montreal. Her work has been shown in several solo and group exhibitions, including Galerie Trois Points, Plein Sud, the Montreal Biennale, and the Volta art fair in New York. Natalie Reis work is part of many private collections including Giverny Capital and Fasken Martineau.

Press release