PLAY! A Retro-Speculative – Paintings by Sally Clark

Lipont Gallery is honoured to present PLAY! A Retro-Speculative, an exhibition of oil paintings by Vancouver-based artist Sally Clark.

This year, we were pleased to discover a group of oil paintings created by Clark in the late 1970s. These works are astonishing. There’s a joy in these paintings that elicits a yearning in people and inspires curiosity about that era. As Wong Kar-wai’s film In the Mood for Love states, “That era has passed, and everything belonging to that era no longer exists.” Every era has its own qualities that define it. With her unique painting style, Sally Clark gives us an amazing perspective on those times.

Unlike Clark’s recent series of paintings, ‘The Divine Insider,’ which focuses close-up on the human face, treating it as a landscape, in this series of works, ‘PLAY!,’ Clark investigates the zeitgeist of the era by presenting full-length portraits. Her subjects are juxtaposed with vivid colours and geometric shapes, emblematic of the 1970s and which, curiously, reflect and embody the sitters. Clark says: “I embarked on this series because I was inspired by my love of Manet’s early paintings and how he challenged social stereotypes. Making a social statement was my plan.”

In the 1970s, the art world had seen a burgeoning of ideas in art movements, including land art, performance art, feminist art, etc. Marginalized people continued their fight for justice and equality. Clark’s works capture the spirit of her subjects and convey the beauty, vulnerability, glamour and joy of that time. Most of the paintings in the exhibition were created in Toronto in the late 1970s. The characters in the paintings are either personal friends, actors in costumes, or people exploring a fantasy. The exaggerated, patterned backgrounds, old furniture, the poses of the protagonists and the props they brought are like scenarios created in a film, making the atmosphere of each painting humorous, beckoning, relaxed, warm, or mysterious… urging us to enter the world of the person and engage in the stories that lie within.

The exhibition also includes a rare self-portrait of Clark that evokes a science fiction movie. It which allows us to have a deeper understanding of Clark, who is both a painter and an award-winning playwright. It is not difficult to see that Clark “performed” a series of “dramas” with her oil paintings in the 1970s. Half a century later, everyone’s life is still being played out like a drama. We ourselves are the characters in the drama, and it’s time for a retro speculative!

The exhibition opens on Tuesday July 23rd from 7:00pm to 9:00pm at Lipont Gallery, Rm218 (no elevator, NOT handicap accessible), 4211 No. 3 Road Richmond, BC.

The exhibition will be on view from July 23rd to August 29th, Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm with extended hours to 8pm on Tuesdays. Closed on weekends and statutory holidays. Admission is free.

Exhibition:
Dates: July 23 – August 29, 2024
Address: Lipont Gallery, Rm 218, 4211 No. 3 Road, Richmond, B.C., V6X 2C3
Hours: Mon-Fri 10 AM to 5 PM, Tuesdays until 8 PM

Free reserved parking is on the south and north sides of the building.
Transit: Canada Line Aberdeen Station