Wonda Koop's stunning new series, In Absentia, is currently on view at Toronto’s Division Gallery

当她21岁时，加拿大艺术家万达·库普梦想从温尼伯搬到纽约，但1972年她去鲍瑞工作室时，一次令人不快的经历把她吓跑了。“在大楼的入口处有个人拿着弯刀来回摆动，尖叫着。当时在苏豪周围的日子相当艰难，我被吓到了，我想，“我就是撑不过去了，”Koop回忆道。所以我回家了，剩下的都是历史了。

在随后的四十年里，库普在世界各地游历和展览，她对色彩理论的探索-通过绘画、摄影和视频-使她站在加拿大艺术界的前列。尽管如此，她从未住在纽约的事实仍在折磨着去年冬天，当时她决定住在60家酒店，这导致了她令人震惊的新系列缺席，目前在多伦多的分部画廊展出。这一系列90幅浩瀚的绘画作品，通过色彩场抽象和记忆的镜头，过滤了曼哈顿的天际线，将纽约标志性的建筑方面提升为一种虚幻的体验，同时巧妙地避免了俗套的陈词滥调。

“我不打算画天际线，但我入住了一个晚上，上了电梯，当门打开时，它是从地板到天花板的窗户，俯瞰曼哈顿下城。”库普说：“我看到的是天空，而不是建筑物，这是绝对壮观的。”库普在布鲁克林也有一间工作室，但她不确定自己会不会像她母亲最近经过的那样工作。“我完全没有肉体，就像在飞机上-你没有死，但你并不是真的在任何地方。”我当时在旅馆是合适的，因为我也不在那里。我只是路过。“

幸运的是，她在世贸中心(One World Trade Center)周围的正负空间轮廓中找到了自己的位置-“存在与不存在之间的这个地方”-在接下来的几个月里，她逐渐开始做笔记、画草图，并最终绘制了30幅典型城市景观的画布。回到加拿大后，她花了一年半的时间从曼哈顿到温尼伯工作室(以及她在加拿大荒野的小屋)做缺席工作，填充素描，再创作60多幅画，让观众置身于充满活力的画笔密集的领域。这些提供了视角的转变，在短暂的抽象和锐利焦点的表现，甚至可以解释为电力翻译的丹弗拉文霓虹灯或理查德塞拉板。

我画了几层，观众就直接参与进来了。这在某种程度上是光学的，但它是柔和的光学，“库普说，他以前骑着摩托车(从”黑星之池中的建筑“(Build In The Pool Of The Black Star)到今年的”嘻哈戏法“(Hick-hop)骑着摩托车穿越加拿大，在长达六年的时间里观看了无数个小时的伊拉克战争报道(绿色地带)，并登上了一艘远洋货轮在圣劳伦斯海路(Seeway)上制造了大量的工作。我一直认为自己是一个视觉语言研究者。我花了一生的时间研究颜色，这成了我谈论一个在某种程度上熟悉但也压倒性的环境的工具。

Koop has travelled and exhibited all over the world and her explorations into colour theory – via paintings, photography and video – have put her at the forefront of the Canadian art world

The expansive 90-work series of drawings and paintings filters the Manhattan skyline through the lens of colour field abstraction and memory that elevates the iconic architectural aspects of New York into an ethereal experience

As a student at the University of Manitoba, Koop dreamed of moving to New York from Winnipeg. Around 40 years later, taking up residence at the city's Sixty LES hotel informed this new body of work

'I had no intention to do paintings of the skyline, but I checked in for one night, went up in the elevator, and when the door opened it was floor to ceiling windows overlooking lower Manhattan. I was seeing more sky than buildings, and it was absolutely spectacular,' says Koop

Recently bereaved, Koop found shelter in the spaces around One World Trade Center – 'this place between being and not being' – and she gradually began making notes, sketching and ultimately rendering 30 canvases of the archetypal cityscape 

Upon her return to Canada she spent the next year and half realising the inspirations taken from Manhattan, filling sketchbooks and making 60 more paintings

The resulting works place the viewer in a dense field of vibrant brushstrokes which offer profound perspective shifts between ephemeral abstraction and sharp-focus representation

'I always think of myself as a visual language researcher. I’ve spent a lifetime researching colour, and it became this vehicle for me to talk about an environment that was in some ways familiar but also overwhelming for me,' concludes Koop

keywords:Exhibitions

关键词：展览