The first to bloom and fastest to die, Lilac is the official harbinger of Spring. With a potent scent that is at once sweet and rotten, Lilacs unleash memories of childhood and adolescence. The origin of Lilacs goes back to ancient Greece. God of the wild, Pan, pursues a frightened nymph named Syringa into the woods, until she disguises herself as a lilac shrub. Unable to find Syringa, Pan instead is drawn to the Lilac bush, cutting from it a reed to create the first pan pipe.
Kristy Luck and Alan Prazniak’s duo painting show River Belly, at Projet Pangee, takes us to Lilac realms. Think Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony – a Greco-roman world where centaurs and centaurettes meet to celebrate Bacchus, god of wine. Prazniak’s fuzzy, understated garden scenes, with their waterfalls and pastel weeping willows, feel like sweet dreams or memories. Prazniak’s paintings are feminine and nuanced. Kristy Luck’s pieces are like lighting bolts thrown down to Earth by Zeus. Vibrant, bold colours swagger in confident brush strokes. Luck’s work is masculine and feminine, in a manner I can only describe as sexual. Smooth curves burst wildly on canvas. River Belly is an exhibition about landscape and memory, and lilac, a colour made from shy blue and fierce red. The exhibition is on until January 12th at Projet Pangee, Montreal.