Corri-Lynn Tetz: Soft Touch, October 9th - 31st, 2020

CORRI-LYNN TETZ
SOFT TOUCH
OCTOBER 9TH - 31ST
RECEPTION: SATURDAY OCTOBER 31ST AT 2, 3 & 4PM
*RSVP REQUIRED BELOW - DETAILS MAY CHANGE DUE TO COVID RESTRICTIONS*

We are pleased to present Soft Touch, a solo exhibition by Corri-Lynn Tetz. Corri-Lynn first exhibited with us in Summer Forecast, a group show curated by Tatum Dooley in 2019. We are thrilled to be featuring Tetz again this fall with her first solo show at Dianna Witte Gallery.

           Corri-Lynn Tetz’s work focuses on the female figure as a way to explore identity, sensation and desire. Working from personal archives, fashion photography, film and pornography, she is interested in the ways images and meaning are transformed through painting and how this process disrupts notions of the gaze to re-imagine pictorial space. In this, intuitive paint handling distances each piece from its source, as she often uses disparate colour, and inventive figuration, to create the impression of transformation, affect and sensation. Her intention is that each painting occupies a space between representation and abstraction - that form provides enough information to convey bodies and space, without losing the immediacy of that first, energized, layer of paint.

         In the past year, Tetz has focused her paintings on representations of feminine sexuality. Working from ‘80s and ‘90s porn, she is interested in the ways painting unexpectedly transforms the meaning of the images and how it disrupts the primacy of the male gaze. In these images, newly embodied figures are acting on their own terms and in their own skin, free from the shame, class and dogma that might complicate the viewers relationship to such overt expressions of female sexuality. 

        For Soft Touch, Tetz made the decision to work almost entirely in a monochromatic palette, setting aside her signature flashes of saturated colour and intense underpaintings, for a more subdued and meditative approach. Citing anxiety and a need for simplification during the spring lockdown, these paintings reflect the artists desire for pleasure and comfort in the act of painting. The results are images of women, alone and taking care of themselves. As Corri-Lynn wrote, “I felt comforted. The women in my paintings seemed like they did too. They felt further away from the magazines I found them in. Suddenly they were just women taking care of themselves… having a moment with their own soft touch.”  

Corri-Lynn received her BFA from Emily Carr University in 2003 and her MFA from Concordia University in 2015. She has received numerous awards and fellowships including the Project Fellowship from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, the Residency Fellowship from the Brucebo Foundation, the Fine Arts Travel Fellowship from Concordia University, and more. She is the recipient of a Canada Council for the Arts grant.

We invite you to join us for a closing reception on Saturday October 31st at 2, 3 & 4PM. We kindly ask that visitors book their time slot with us in advance. In order to maintain physical distancing measures we are limiting each time slot and request that you wear a face mask. Our hope is that these intimate receptions will create a more memorable experience for the artist and viewer. If you have any questions, please email us at info@diannawitte.com.
We look forward to seeing you!