Luanne Martineau
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Luanne Martineau has become known her dense layering of imagery and her affinity with popular and underground sources. Her references span from R. Crumb's cartoon characters to earlier sources such as Little Nemo and Buster Brown. Her interests also include children's literature, such as The Little Prince and Little Black Sambo, as well as Goya's drawings. While Martineau's collages and drawings imply clear narratives, the viewer enters their dense layers and fragmentary references only to become lost in the imagery as the promised narrative slips away. Likewise, Martineau's fabric sculptures recombine and transform before the viewer's eyes. The presence of the soft and domestic in Martineau's work, and its associations with traditional female hand work, is characteristically combined with unbridled, even grotesque references to the body, its messy innards and unpredictable ways. The power in Martineau's work lies in this confrontation of the attractive and comfortably familiar with the repulsive and taboo aspects of our physical existence. Martineau had a solo exhibition at Vancouver's Contemporary Art Gallery in 2004. Her work was included in the Vancouver Art Gallery's major drawing exhibition in 2003, Drawing the World; Masters to Hipsters, and most recently in Just My Imagination (2005) a major survey of drawing in Canada that circulated to several venues.Martineau's was seen in Other Worlds, a group exhibition of drawings at Jessica Bradley Art & Projects June 25 - July 23, 2005.
Exhibitions
Luanne Martineau: FREAKOUT (Temporal Bodies)
Other Worlds