This solo exhibition by Karilee Fuglem offers an opportunity to discover-or rediscover-her iconic 1997 installation, Untitled (breathing wall), along with recent works. Composed of delicate drawings made in acrylic, peeled from their working surfaces and suspended, these pieces are softly animated by air movements. The room feels alive, as if it were breathing.
"Bodies in space. From me to you something indeterminate blurs our edges. Is not empty.
This space. Intimate but public. This gallery, a space for contemplation. For reflection.
We reflect. From every surface.
You draw a breath and return it as light.
I offer it back to you as resistant architecture. Expansive, tender.
I offer it back in maps of circles, little "o"s, puffs of air, circular spaces, rhythmic systems. Streams.
Circulatory.
Back to where we drift into each other, part of everything." - KF
Biography
Karilee Fuglem's work takes the form of drawings, photographs, artist books and installations, which are collaborations with ambient light and air movement. Her materials are sometimes barely visible, or made to reflect light onto a surface so the reflection itself is the art. Natural light binds the viewer to the ever-changing present, to one's spot on a spinning planet revolving around a single light source, our bodies, our moon, reflecting. Any moment can become a dreamscape when something visible disappears into shadow, then reappears, the wind breathing the clouds along.
Originally from Prince George, British Columbia, Karilee Fuglem has lived in Montreal since 1989. She has presented her work widely in solo exhibitions, notably at the Darling Foundry (Montreal), the Koffler Gallery (Toronto), Oakville Galleries (Oakville, Ontario), Centre d'art Expression (Ste-Hyacinthe), Two Rivers Gallery (Prince George, BC) and in numerous group exhibitions, including the National Gallery of Canada (2007), the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (2016), the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (1997) and the Biennale de Montréal (1998 and 2011). She has developed large-scale public artworks at Montreal's CHUM (2017) and Bibliothèque L'Octogone (2023).
Her work can be found in the collections of the Musée d'art contemporain, the Musée national des beaux arts du Québec, the National Gallery of Canada, The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, BMO, Bennett Jones LLP among others.
Installation views credit : Michael Patten
