The In-Between
Laura Lewis – 2024
The In-Between is an immersive figurative painting exhibition featuring enigmatic renderings of Canadian 2SLGBTQIA+ artists. This show features four large-scale paintings from a larger body of work Lewis has spent the last two years creating. This work explores themes of psychosexuality, queerness, melancholy, identity, and community.
The scale of this work is critical as it is important for queer people to occupy physical space in an institutional setting. All the people featured in this work are friends of the artist. Each individual carefully selected their personal fashion and accessories they wished to be depicted in as a form of artistic collaboration. The artists featured in this series are Jessie Jannuska (Jessie in Blue), Arjun Lal (Arjun with Butt Monster), Madeline Rae (Madeline in Oil), Christina Hajjar and her partner (Embrace).
The male gaze is often present in figurative painting, it is challenging to escape it. The individuals featured in this work confront the viewer with direct eye-contact as a form of acknowledgement, their presence is established. This is in direct defiance of the male gaze and empowers women and gender minorities. These paintings subvert the male gaze and pose the question of who is visible and who has the power to look.
About the Artist
Laura Lewis
Laura Lewis is a queer visual artist originally from Kjipuktuk (Halifax, Nova Scotia) currently based in Treaty 1 Territory (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada). Her conceptual figurative painting practice explores philosophical questions concerning psychosexuality, the multiplicities of self, and nuances of the human condition.
Lewis graduated in 2018 with a combined degree from NSCAD and the School of Art, University of Manitoba BFA Honours program. She is the founder and facilitator of Critical Painting Perspectives, presented by Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art (MAWA). She has participated in artist residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity, and in Civita Castellana, Italy. She was featured in the 2023 Painting issue of Border Crossings Magazine (interview by Robert Enright). In 2024 her work was exhibited at various institutions across Canada including Modern Fuel, MAWA, aceartinc. and Gallery 1C03 at the University of Winnipeg.