Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran is pleased to present Of the Air, Jane Corrigan’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. For this show, Corrigan continues the female-character driven images that have come to define her work. As the artist pushes both paint and process, the image language has deepened, and a new iconography– dogs, bones, sticks and records– has emerged, forming an expanded lexicon of personal symbols and entwined narrative.

Jane Corrigan’s paintings feature people and situations drawn from her imagination, leaning on accumulative narratives over time, as in a film or novel. Composed of elements from different periods, her works create anachronistic shortcuts, suggesting a sort of comic book Impressionism. Time, and personhood, is elastic. The artist begins by mining her subjects through myriad drawings and oil studies. The process is a real quest. What emerges are the characters that come to life in her paintings, imagined portraits that explore the subconscious through parody and self-referential allegory. They are striking illustrations of independent and spirited young women passing through the world, intrepid and fearless, often engaged with a focus just shy of meditation.

Of the Air is comprised of ephemeral moments captured by the artist’s confident line and gesture. Corrigan subtly punctuates her paintings with biblical and mythological symbols, as well as references to all things aerial, from the surprise of a gust of wind, to the brief appearance of a bird on the horizon. From a turntable, a few musical notes rise into the atmosphere, while further away a young girl in a diaphanous dress seems to sway, suspended in her action. Dogs are often underfoot, visible manifestations of a joyful female spirit that must be fed and played with. Each scene presents non-linear narratives for the viewer to piece together, imbue with meaning and deconstruct again.

Jane Corrigan (b. 1980, Shawville, Quebec) lives in Brooklyn. She studied fine arts at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (BFA 2003), attended Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art (2002), and completed graduate studies at SUNY Purchase (MFA 2009). Her work has been shown in solo exhibitions at White Columns, New York; Kerry Schuss, New York; Retrospective, Hudson, NY; Feuer/Mesler, New York; Erin Stump Projects, Toronto; and Marinaro, New York. Group shows include those at Rental Gallery, East Hampton, NY; Invisible Exports, New York; Insect Gallery, Los Angeles; Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran, Montreal; Carbon 12, Dubai; Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York; Sikkema Jenkins, New York; Wilkinson Gallery, London; Karma, New York; Feuer/Mesler, New York; Oakville Galleries, Canada; among others. She was a recipient of a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award in 2013, has been granted residencies at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Space Program in Brooklyn, New York.

For all inquiries, please contact Antoine Ertaskiran or Soad Carrier: [email protected] or  +1-514-989-7886.