Currently on show at Visual Voice Art Gallery are the exciting works by artists Andrea Rausch and Geneviève Saumier.

Andrea Rausch is a German born artist who is currently based inHamburg. She studied at the Hochschule für bildende Künste inHamburg and at the Royal College of Art inLondon,England. Her work has been featured extensively in her home country and in theU.K.  Rausch’s work has also been featured in five art catalogues.

Seeing the work of artist Andrea Rausch is an invitation to delve deeply into the psyche of the artist. Currently on exhibit is her series Umnachtungshaut (Blackout Skin) which as the artist points out described a period in her life when she went through emotional trauma. According to Rausch: “I felt as though darkness was enveloping me like a skin.” The paintings act as a catharsis in which Rausch has employed a richly textured palette to illustrate the deepest and darkest part of her soul. Working in abstraction her vision is intense with emotion as she creates haunting narratives of her experience.

In much of her work, there are representations of the female form set against a backdrop of warm intense reds and oranges juxtaposed by dark lines black lines of charcoal and ink that impose themselves upon the canvas. Rausch is said to incorporate archetypes of Greek mythology into her work; and with layered movement infused with unrestrained brush strokes she has created her own dark narrative populated by passionate characters

Geneviève Saumier is a local artist born inMontreal who completed her education in Visual Arts at ConcordiaUniversity and obtained an MA in Anthropology from Université de Montréal. Saumier is currently based in Mexico City.

Her work is a dialogue of energetic lines and vague silhouettes brought to life by warm colours that grow organically in a fluid landscape. The artist’s vocabulary includes fluid lines, rapidly brushed circles, and other geometric shapes which establish a dialogue with the spectator. In creating her own unique style, Saumier has employed a method of dripping paint layered with wide brush strokes framed by blocks of colour. These drippings are like roots which connect the disembodied shapes afloat in a frenetic space. Colour is a passport into her vibrant world that is permeated by convoluted figures drawn with sharp black lines trying to break through a veil of multiple hues. A certain ambiguity is infused in her Saumier’s work that is both pleasurable and whimsical in nature.

Visual Voice Art Gallery, space 421
Nightfall
Andrea Rausch, Geneviève Saumier
February 7 – 16, 2013
www.visualvoicegallery.com