Canadian artist Alexandra Levasseur (previously covered here) has new oil and acrylic paintings on view at Mirus Gallery, “Body of Land”. Her tormented yet feminine subjects, painted in an expressionist style, make a reappearance as if out of a dream. Levasseur’s artwork has always exhibited dreamlike qualities. Here, her subjects exist somewhere between a deep subconscious state and wakefulness. We find them melting into abstract landscapes, non-descript yet wild and untouched. In some of her most gestural work to date, physical form and nature are combined to create a single “body of land.” As in her “Hommage à Odilon” series, she strips the identity of the subject completely and fills the face with a patch of scenery. Others replace mountain ranges and landforms with a young girls’ profile. Levasseur believes that the elements of our being are directly related to those surrounding us. These women embody Levasseur’s idea of a heroine or a protector of a nature; a symbol that she uses to emphasize the link between our mental state and environment.
“Body of Land” by Alexandra Levasseur will be on view at Mirus Gallery through April 11th, 2015.