Kari Serrao, Out of the darkness, Leslie Grove Gallery, Toronto, October 1-10, 2021

Exhibition note by Corynn Kokolakis

If you are familiar with the trajectory of Kari’s practice, the offering in “Out of the darkness” is a bit of a departure. Still, it sits comfortably within her established aesthetic. Gilding and refinery are stripped away, leaving a depth and complexity that reads just as elaborate as the work for which we have come to know her.

Yet one does not need to contrast this work with anything but itself to find resonence. The exhibition is ripe with elements that relish their differences while coalescing into symbolic touchstones, guiding us forward.

The hare, a constant in her practice, is rendered in encaustic; the anthropomorphic quality is heightened through the depth offered in the naturalistic backgrounds, which seem to move around to embrace the subject. Though reminiscent of Durer’s depiction of the hare as object, these figures have agency and are anything but “still.”

One can detect whispers of the traditions of Dutch Still Life in the handling of light that defines the exhibition. Peonies, delicate, moving out of the darkness, become a sort of “memento mori,” a notion that what is not preserved is bound to be lost. Yet, there is also a sense of rebirth in the blooms that have no outside edges, flattening while simultaneously offering a glimpse of the infinite—possibility, perhaps, in precarity.

This flatness and possibility intertwine throughout the work, and it is in the pieces where natural elements meet the figure that the shifting picture plane and handing back and forth of medium become most apparent. The hare painted just as adeptly in oil appears again alongside the raven. Merged with petals and rock striations, the animals, symbolic guides, elude to a grounding in the natural world—a call to return to something foundational.

It would be challenging to avoid inserting the implications of the pandemic in the reading of this work. And in her statement, Kari speaks of personal upheaval as the impetus to its making. But what she has shown here is perhaps a glimmer of the zeitgeist of the last two years. Fragility, quiet, darkness, grounding, authenticity, hope, movement, light, and ultimately, growth are universal.