Martine Johanna continues her exploration of the female psyche with a new series of paintings and drawings at Massey Klein Gallery. The paintings and drawings in the exhibition depict Johanna’s women in uncanny situations that draw attention to the subjects’ internal landscapes.
The works in Balancing Act are vibrant and unsettled. Her heroines visibly grapple with the weight and tension of the expectations that society has placed on them. The figures’ internal dilemmas, made visible through concentrated facial expressions and calculated postures, spill into their surroundings, manifesting in rainbows, fractured and hemorrhaging color fields, and even levitating objects.
