Luanne Martineau

Luanne Martineau joins interests in early twentieth century social realism with mid century modernism to produce works that speak to ongoing biases and entrenched exclusions. She uses turn of the century comic books for their racist depictions of a North American immigrant polyglot as sources for elaborate drawings. Martineau copies select bits from these comic books on tracing paper, building up large palimpsests of marks whose aggregate quality is abstract, but which on close inspection reveals traces of illustrative realism, exaggerated stereotypes and received prejudices. In her exhibition at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Martineau plans a suite of drawings accompanied by a large sculptural installation. Working with outdated manufacturing technologies for fabricating textiles—such as flocking and felting and employing an antiquated knitting machine—Martineau has recently been crafting a series of large, soft sculptures that base comic referents off of high modernist ideals.