France-Lise McGurn: Hostess

About

Simon Lee Gallery is proud to announce Hostess, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Glasgow- and London- based artist France-Lise McGurn. Situated on the first floor of the gallery, Hostess showcases a new body of work featuring a large central triptych, new wall piece and a painted sofa suite.

Working on linen, McGurn allows this base textile to shift the tone and mood of these new paintings.
The exhibition title refers to the politics and power dynamics inherent in hosting, both socially and within the science of the body. The feminised term 'hostess' points to the recurring female form as a motif and abstract glyphic psychological reiteration in McGurn’s work.

Evading the boundaries of the traditional picture plane, McGurn eschews the limits of her canvases by extending the imagery directly onto the gallery walls and onto furniture brought into the space, displacing her subjects and creating an immersive environment. Instead of approaching painting as a static form, the artist activates
the composition, allowing the figures and forms to be seen as though in a field of vision. Occasionally confrontational, sometimes passive, sometimes ecstatic, these characters shift through these emotions, constantly reforming their personas.