Galerie Donald Browne, have just finished installing their new exhibition Parade by Christine Major.

Christine’s paintings feature loosely painted animal portraits. She places each animal into out-of context environments: an ostrich in an abandoned parking lot, a skunk in a sports arena, a peacock in an urban driveway. There is an uneasy tension between the animal and its environment, something the artist refers to as a “staged metaphor”. In fact, every animal she chose to paint is somewhat iconic: ostrich, skunk, praying mantis, peacock – each animal is used to symbolize a human characteristic, so each one of her paintings suggests a back story. Christine just happened to drop by the gallery to check out the installation of her works, and we chatted about her painting featuring the skunk in the sports stadium (I don’t know what it’s called, the labels weren’t up yet). The skunk, situated boldly in the foreground, has its tail raised. In the background there’s a messy, garish mass of brushstrokes and sponge marks which depicts the moving crowd. My interpretation was that of a stadium full of people fleeing the super-sized skunks’s smell, but Christine told me her that for her the skunk symbolizes a lonely soldier whose isolation is contrasting with the mass of the people. I guess the good thing about contemporary art is that it’s always open to interpretation.

Galerie Donald Browne
space 524
Christine Major
Parade
until March 8, 2008
www.galeriedonaldbrowne.com