Alex Chowaniec | A Ritual of Flowers
Oct 26 - Nov 9

Reception : Saturday, October 26 @ 3 - 5 pm
RSVP your attendance to responses@wallspacegallery.ca

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WALL SPACE GALLERY is proud to present Alex Chowaniec’s solo exhibition of oil paintings “A Ritual of Flowers”. In this series of nine impasto paintings, Chowaniec explores still life as a chronicle of the rituals of daily life within motherhood; celebrating monthly milestones, adaptation, and the creation of space for daily gratitude. Her painted bouquets and curio cabinets become vessels for what is fleeting.

After the birth of her daughter, Chowaniec began gathering flowers every month on the anniversary of her birth as a celebration of her good health; a small gesture in marking her immense gratitude for her life and continued well-being. In “Flowers for Ursula (Holding Hands Through Space and Time)”, Chowaniec presents us with swirling forms of flowers emerging from lavish swaths of oil paint cascading from a fuschia vase. A ceramic or stuffed animal of a feline sits beneath, gazing upwards at the abundance above with large bubbly blue eyes. Within those eyes is an innocence mirrored in the
whipping-cream texture of its body, pliable and soft.

Since I gave birth to my daughter, we create unique rituals every day to celebrate
our new lives together. Flowers, leaves, weaving and song become the vessels
for our experiences. I create installations to honour them. A Ritual of Flowers is my first dedicated collection of impasto oil paintings documenting these compositions.

- Alex Chowaniec

Every inch of Chowaniec’s canvases sway with movement and transformation. Repeated forms, such as a figure of a mother bear and her cub, bones, feathers and other treasures one might scavenge along a trail, appear across various canvases, marking transitions of time and change.
Chowaniec includes half-drunk coffee cups, bananas, and grocery packaging in her documentation of her ritual, items that ground us in the ordinariness of everyday life.

"On the scale of the domestic altarpiece, the paintings celebrate life, loss and deep connection across the generations. We walk on the forest floor together, gather treasures, learn and teach each other through nature. My grandmother’s textiles, a vase with a Mama bear and baby bear—heirloom objects hold our intergenerational relationships with longing and joy. We collect a fallen yellow leaf on our way to school and I place it in my daughter’s hands. I ask her to hold onto it until the end of the day when I pick her up and we can hold it in our hands together. Maternal memories move beyond space and time."

"We can greet passages into and out of this world with the same words:
we love you and support you on your journey."

- Alex Chowaniec

Capturing these moments through impasto painting welcomes the beauty in their imperfection and chaos. She candidly points us towards considering not only daily passages of time and growth, but how the objects we house our emotions in can be markers of what is most important in life.

- Tiffany April, Curator

We look forward to welcoming you for the reception on Saturday, October 26 @ 3 - 5 pm. The artist will be in attendance and giving an artist talk at 3:30 pm. Please RSVP your attendance to responses@wallspacegallery.ca

Alex Chowaniec is a Canadian artist based in Brooklyn, NY and Co Founder of Chowaniec Projects, visualizing climate action through art.

Chowaniec has exhibited internationally, including at La MaMa in New York City; The Barbican Centre, London; Olga Korper Gallery, Art Toronto, Galerie d’Art Jean-Claude Bergeron and the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Canada; Knockdown Center, National Academy of Design, Georges Bergès Gallery, Ortega y Gasset Projects, lorimoto, Grace Exhibition Space, SPRING/BREAK and Kleinert/James Center for the Arts in New York; Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum in Milwaukee, WI; and SOMArts Cultural Center and The Lab in San Francisco. Chowaniec holds an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, graduating with the Irene Pijoan Memorial Painting Award, and Joan Mitchell Foundation, Headlands Centre for the Arts, and SECA Award (SFMOMA) nominations. She received her BFA Honors from Queen’s University.