EXHIBITION: structures - crucial minutiae

Montreal-based glass artists Venessa Yanow is having a solo show entitled Structures - Crucial Minutiae at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery in Kitchener-Waterloo in Ontario. It opens January 27th from 1-5pm and runs until March 23, 2008. Below is a brief description of her recent explorations:

My subject matter has been loosely based on micro-organic, zoomorphic forms inspired by nature. But I am not dictated by this subject matter. It is context for my pursuit and interest in the abstract. The ambiguity in my work is of great importance to me right now. Though inanimate, my work displays a vivid sense of animation. My choice of form, composition, materials and colour tends to activate the finished pieces in a way that gives them a heart beat, an uncanny life force. They are my pets; creatures that reflect my inner makeup and also echo the exterior life forms that are forever repeating, mutating and evolving in the natural world. My recent work does not always conform to what is generally perceived as being beautiful. It is the strange and the grotesque, and the beauty found in these that intrigue me. To be both attracted and repelled by something is a much stronger, deeper emotion than to be simply attracted to something. I try to take my viewer out of their comfort zone and bring them to a place that, though strange and different, they would like to stay in longer and investigate.