Shirley Kaneda

Galerie Jean-Luc & Takako Richard is pleased to announce the second solo show of Shirley Kaneda entitled « Provocative Pleasure » from June 6th until July 25th, 2009.

Shirley Kaneda presents about seven new paintings of different-sized canvases. We find elements of the abstract language she has developed since 2000, namely her complex, undulatory, fluid disruptions, all in curves that recall the scattering of light or the swirling of different liquids. These complex patterns melt into each other. They appear to be shifting and ephemeral, and yet they are stills of processes. They can elongate in space or coagulate into compact blocks that overlap each other. Shirley Kaneda introduces measured doses of slight relief by putting forth the gestural quality of painting. For the most part, her new paintings keep their immateriality through the flatness and thinness of the successive layers of oil paint which are meticulously applied with a fine-tipped brush.The titles of her paintings are oxymorons that couldn’t be more appropriate for our time. By allowing the coexistence of radically opposite languages, Shirley Kaneda shows us visual oxymorons. In a world where all types of conflicts tend to amplify paroxysmally, Shirley Kaneda’s paintings show us that it is possible, with care and understanding, to find ways for different systems, ideas, and people –merely neighbours-- to live and coexist together.