Natalie Reis‘ latest exhibition titled Toxic Cornucopia at Galerie Trois Points is a sublime paradox. Disemboweled intestines snake across the large-scale raw canvases like beautiful arabesques, amputated hands are gracefully arranged into a bouquet of flowers, skulls and spines form a delicate baroque curl. The deconstructed human body, so beautifully rendered in pastel tones, is being devoured by bears, attacked by wolves, and bitten by spiders.

Many artists explore the sublime – that space where beauty transcends materiality – and Reis’ work simultaneously draws us in with its aesthetics while repulsing us with its semantics. It’s this ambiguity, this tension which give her work that special magic. The carefully arranged jumble of human organs, visual quotes from ancient Greek mythology, and references to pop culture subtly drive home her feminist message.

Galerie Trois Points, space 520
Natalie Reis
Toxic Cornucopia
April 30 – May 28, 2011
www.galerietroispoints.qc.ca