Paintings that begin with an X presents a new body of work by Elaine Stocki and marks the first collaboration between the artist and Blouin Division. The exhibition unfolds through Stocki’s materially driven practice and reflections on process, intuition, and transformation:
“I titled this exhibition Paintings that begin with an X because I started each piece in the same way: with two intersecting lines that become both a formal and conceptual point of reference. The process begins with designing a pattern. I sew sections together and paint the linen portions first, gradually building the surface up until it suggests what the other areas should become. Each painting develops an organic narrative through the process of making.
Watercolour, velvet, linen and silk constitute an exploration of the tension between materials: the unpredictable effects of layered and poured paint, the saturated sheen of velvet, and the rigidity of linen. Colour, texture, and the historical associations attached to these textiles are meaningful. Velvet feels luxurious, but also kitsch, and the contrast between its richness and the muted surface of linen creates an almost photographic sense of depth: one material recedes while another pushes forward.
Whenever I finish a body of work, I am often surprised by what it reveals to me. The paintings become physical manifestations of emotions that I may not have understood while in the studio. This intuitive process shapes my deeply personal relationship to the work. I am constantly handling the paintings: removing them from the stretcher, discarding sections, replacing them with others and stretching textiles with varying tensions, akin to skin at different stages of life. Inevitably, I begin to personify the paintings as I make them. Some have more combative personalities than others and have their own sense of what they need to become.
The paintings draw on visual tropes associated with devotion: rich colour palettes, luminous textiles and simplified forms that evoke the body. The works inevitably reflect my desires, fears, and emotional state during their making, revealing something back to me upon completion. Fundamentally, I believe that an artist’s job is to absorb the tensions of the world and create an aesthetic interpretation. With that in mind, the current moment is a particularly cogent time to be making work. I like to think of these paintings as little allegories, employing the visual language of spirituality to question the hypocrisies embedded in moral posturing.” - Elaine Stocki
Elaine Stocki (b. 1979, Winnipeg, Canada) holds degrees in both Chemistry and Fine Art from the University of Manitoba and an MFA from Yale University. She has exhibited at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Toronto; Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto; Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin; Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York; Night Gallery, Los Angeles; Cadet Capela, Paris; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and Thomas Erben Gallery, New York, among others. Her work has been reviewed in Border Crossings, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. In 2019, her first monograph was published by SKIRA Paris on the occasion of a ten-year survey at the Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the National Gallery, Ottawa, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Stocki was a 2023–24 Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program awardee and lives and works in Los Angeles.
