Panya Clark Espinal’s exhibition Architecture of the Plain presents an experimental material laboratory synthesizing two historical touchstones – German/American master weaver Anni Albers’ 1957 weave structure “Rail” and Swiss-German artist Paul Klee’s 1923 watercolour “Architecture of the Plain.” Employing thread as her primary medium, Clark Espinal’s ongoing series ruminates on the presence of “Rail” in her childhood home, her love of transparencies in colour and form, and the design of structures that shift from the clothes we wear to the cities we build. Her aim is to foster conversation – with the materials and her audiences alike – with an exploratory “mash-up” that lays a groundwork for her upcoming year at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien International Artist Residency in Berlin, Germany.
About the Artist:
Panya Clark Espinal is a Canadian artist whose 30-year practice has explored mechanisms of representation and their influence on perception. She has attempted to bridge a gap between the world as seen in images and that of tangible experience. Through site-specific installations, exhibitions and public commissions, her work has focused on bringing renewed intimacy to the act of looking while exploring questions of reproduction, perspective, and physicality.
With a diploma in Experimental Art and Sculpture Installation from the Ontario College of Art (1988) and an MFA in Criticism and Curatorial Practice from OCADU (2019), Clark Espinal sees her creative practice as an engagement with memory. Through it she attempts to reconnect or re-member that which has become disconnected or forgotten. Concurrently, she recognizes the power of material engagement to build relationships and make memory—to manifest a spatial and temporal connection between her physical surroundings and her intellectual, spiritual, and sensual self. For Clark Espinal, acts of making are a form of ancestral maintenance, leaving a trail of crumbs for those coming up behind her.
Clark Espinal’s solo exhibitions include the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Canadian Embassy (Tokyo), the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, the National Gallery of Canada, Oakville Galleries, and the Southern Alberta Art Gallery. She has also exhibited in England, Italy, and Spain. Her work is included in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Oakville Gallery, Museum London, Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery, and YYZ Artists’ Outlet.