''For the past few years I have been investigating figurative painting and its concerns with identity and recognition. This investigation also includes photographic representation that offers alternatives to the painting tradition and allows for a new reading of portraiture.
The character of my work expands upon the idea of the body with overlapping relationships of intense light, direct observation, photographic distortions, simplifications, and emotional engagement. The painted figure is a metaphor for personal disclosure and intimate response, and presents a reciprocal relationship between the viewer and the subject – a recalling of shared experiences and associations. The portrait- like presentation enhances the psychological realism - becoming a window or mirror that elucidates, strengthens, reveals vulnerabilities, broaches both the private and the public – an opportunity for authentic encounters interwoven with reflection and memory.''
Donna Shvil
Depuis quelques années, j'effectue un travail de recherche sur la peinture figurative et sur ses questions d'identité et d'identification. Je m'intéresse également à la représentation photographique qui offre des alternatives à la peinture traditionnelle ainsi qu'une une nouvelle lecture du portrait.
La spécificité de mon travail s'étend au-delà de l'idée du corps et inclut l'observation directe du modèle, la luminosité intense, les distorsions photographiques, les simplifications et l'attachement émotionnel. La figure peinte devient la métaphore d'une révélation intime et d'une réponse personnelle. Elle offre ainsi une relation réciproque entre le spectateur et le sujet, procédant par souvenirs d'expériences et associations communes. La présentation sous la forme du portrait amplifie le réalisme psychologique, devenant, du coup, le miroir des forces et des faiblesses, du privé et du public, et offrant une opportunité unique de se rencontrer dans la mémoire et la réflexion.
Donna Shvil
As in his painting, Shvil’s figures and faces emerge from velvety blackness, their skin translucent, almost white against it.
Similar fecund darkness from which beings surface, appeared in the works of France’s Odilon Redon, but what he shares with Shvil lies beneath the image, in the invisible realm of the mind.
Unlike Sargent’s dispassionate model, Shvil’s figures are in the throes of emotions, clothed in them, reshaped by pain, enveloped in an aura of intimacy instantly recognizable, and impossible to deny.
And it is in this dimension of the unconscious that Shvil meets Redon, who himself wanted to “place the visible at the service of the invisible”. Although his works are marked by surreal dichotomies and grotesque beings, his aim was to exorcise through art the inner demons that tormented him.
Seeing Shvil’s painting The Gift for the first time, I knew instantly the underlying theme of the exhibition, and the path the artist took in preparation for her new production.
It is the path we all walk at some time, one of loss and suffering, and of our inescapable human lot.
Imbued with pain, as much as with acceptance, and more, with a sense of salvation, Shvil’s paintings present a pantheon of faces that are in the process of telling a story. It is whispered, transmitted through downcast glances, the contortion of the body, the small symbols that appear in the fabric, and through colour, which has made its foray into Shvil’s darkened universe, a harbinger of the light to come.
In Last Night, all we see is a naked arm and part of the shoulder and neck of a woman in a black dress. Her head is lowered, her features hidden by the blackness that is wrapped around her. It is all in the resigned drooping of the hand, the palm half-opened, as if something had just slipped from its grip. The back of the figure is stooped, weighted down by a burden that has now found its place inside the body, drawing it into itself, folding like a withering flower.
The gestural brushwork barely visible in the black background, surfaces in several paintings that are striking for their colour. Purplish blue, rich and deep, has replaced the soft blackness that used to be Shvil’s hallmark. It takes the form of swathes of fabric that serves as a cocoon for the figures snuggled within it. This is the colour of healing, of hope. In Turbulent Comfort, Shvil focuses on the face and hands of the woman, who appears to be sleeping and dreaming, floating as much in reality as in a reverie. The gestures of the palms seem to be transmitting a message through some kind of sign language, while the face, eyes closed, holds the secret...
Once freed from her dark palette, Shvil proves to be a master colourist, audacious and assured. Dream Dolls is an unusual work not only for the bold use of red and white, but because of the composition focused on two figures in the centre of the painting. Emerging from what looks like a giant billowing skirt, with red poppies embedded in its pleats “for remembrance”, these Siamese twins appear to be struggling, as if one were pushing the other out, away. There is something disturbing in this beautiful painting; a silent battle is raging amid satiny folds, white lace and giant pearls.
But the work that encapsulates the entire exhibition and its spirit, is the afore mentioned The Gift, a vertical portrait of a woman, hands clasped close to the chest, her eyes raised, looking away from the viewer, lit by some otherworldly light of an unknown source. The skin is translucent, composed of many colours, white, almost transparent, barely holding the body, which disappears into deep blackness. Yet, as we follow the quiet stare of the model, and our eyes travel up and up with her, we come to a break in the still ebony space, a lingering purple light that appears at the upper edge of the painting, a hint of another dimension, of peace.
“The Gift, is what we receive in moments of deepest sorrow,” Shvil says of the title of the painting, but that gift extends further, as the invisible becomes visible, and another gift is offered, this time by the artist to the public.
quote
Born in Montreal, Donna Shvil graduated from the BFA program at Concordia in 1986 and received her Graphic Design training at Dawson College, graduating in 1989. Predominantly known for her complex and contemplative figurative and still life paintings, her work has been recognized for surpassing, both technically and compositionally, the conventional limits of the medium of acrylic, achieving rare equilibriums of restraint and release.
"Personal involvement with the subject is crucial in placing the subject into the world of my work. The intimate nature of this relationship, and respect for the living subject, are guides for the representational concerns."
The character of my work expands upon the idea of the body with overlapping relationships of intense light, direct observation, photographic distortions, simplifications, and emotional engagement. The painted figure is a metaphor for personal disclosure and intimate response, and presents a reciprocal relationship between the viewer and the subject – a recalling of shared experiences and associations. The portrait- like presentation enhances the psychological realism - becoming a window or mirror that elucidates, strengthens, reveals vulnerabilities, broaches both the private and the public – an opportunity for authentic encounters interwoven with reflection and memory.''
Donna Shvil
Depuis quelques années, j'effectue un travail de recherche sur la peinture figurative et sur ses questions d'identité et d'identification. Je m'intéresse également à la représentation photographique qui offre des alternatives à la peinture traditionnelle ainsi qu'une une nouvelle lecture du portrait.
La spécificité de mon travail s'étend au-delà de l'idée du corps et inclut l'observation directe du modèle, la luminosité intense, les distorsions photographiques, les simplifications et l'attachement émotionnel. La figure peinte devient la métaphore d'une révélation intime et d'une réponse personnelle. Elle offre ainsi une relation réciproque entre le spectateur et le sujet, procédant par souvenirs d'expériences et associations communes. La présentation sous la forme du portrait amplifie le réalisme psychologique, devenant, du coup, le miroir des forces et des faiblesses, du privé et du public, et offrant une opportunité unique de se rencontrer dans la mémoire et la réflexion.
Donna Shvil
As in his painting, Shvil’s figures and faces emerge from velvety blackness, their skin translucent, almost white against it.
Similar fecund darkness from which beings surface, appeared in the works of France’s Odilon Redon, but what he shares with Shvil lies beneath the image, in the invisible realm of the mind.
Unlike Sargent’s dispassionate model, Shvil’s figures are in the throes of emotions, clothed in them, reshaped by pain, enveloped in an aura of intimacy instantly recognizable, and impossible to deny.
And it is in this dimension of the unconscious that Shvil meets Redon, who himself wanted to “place the visible at the service of the invisible”. Although his works are marked by surreal dichotomies and grotesque beings, his aim was to exorcise through art the inner demons that tormented him.
Seeing Shvil’s painting The Gift for the first time, I knew instantly the underlying theme of the exhibition, and the path the artist took in preparation for her new production.
It is the path we all walk at some time, one of loss and suffering, and of our inescapable human lot.
Imbued with pain, as much as with acceptance, and more, with a sense of salvation, Shvil’s paintings present a pantheon of faces that are in the process of telling a story. It is whispered, transmitted through downcast glances, the contortion of the body, the small symbols that appear in the fabric, and through colour, which has made its foray into Shvil’s darkened universe, a harbinger of the light to come.
In Last Night, all we see is a naked arm and part of the shoulder and neck of a woman in a black dress. Her head is lowered, her features hidden by the blackness that is wrapped around her. It is all in the resigned drooping of the hand, the palm half-opened, as if something had just slipped from its grip. The back of the figure is stooped, weighted down by a burden that has now found its place inside the body, drawing it into itself, folding like a withering flower.
The gestural brushwork barely visible in the black background, surfaces in several paintings that are striking for their colour. Purplish blue, rich and deep, has replaced the soft blackness that used to be Shvil’s hallmark. It takes the form of swathes of fabric that serves as a cocoon for the figures snuggled within it. This is the colour of healing, of hope. In Turbulent Comfort, Shvil focuses on the face and hands of the woman, who appears to be sleeping and dreaming, floating as much in reality as in a reverie. The gestures of the palms seem to be transmitting a message through some kind of sign language, while the face, eyes closed, holds the secret...
Once freed from her dark palette, Shvil proves to be a master colourist, audacious and assured. Dream Dolls is an unusual work not only for the bold use of red and white, but because of the composition focused on two figures in the centre of the painting. Emerging from what looks like a giant billowing skirt, with red poppies embedded in its pleats “for remembrance”, these Siamese twins appear to be struggling, as if one were pushing the other out, away. There is something disturbing in this beautiful painting; a silent battle is raging amid satiny folds, white lace and giant pearls.
But the work that encapsulates the entire exhibition and its spirit, is the afore mentioned The Gift, a vertical portrait of a woman, hands clasped close to the chest, her eyes raised, looking away from the viewer, lit by some otherworldly light of an unknown source. The skin is translucent, composed of many colours, white, almost transparent, barely holding the body, which disappears into deep blackness. Yet, as we follow the quiet stare of the model, and our eyes travel up and up with her, we come to a break in the still ebony space, a lingering purple light that appears at the upper edge of the painting, a hint of another dimension, of peace.
“The Gift, is what we receive in moments of deepest sorrow,” Shvil says of the title of the painting, but that gift extends further, as the invisible becomes visible, and another gift is offered, this time by the artist to the public.
quote
Born in Montreal, Donna Shvil graduated from the BFA program at Concordia in 1986 and received her Graphic Design training at Dawson College, graduating in 1989. Predominantly known for her complex and contemplative figurative and still life paintings, her work has been recognized for surpassing, both technically and compositionally, the conventional limits of the medium of acrylic, achieving rare equilibriums of restraint and release.
"Personal involvement with the subject is crucial in placing the subject into the world of my work. The intimate nature of this relationship, and respect for the living subject, are guides for the representational concerns."
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