Corynn Kokolakis, Resurfacing, Leslie Grove Gallery, Toronto, Oct 27 – Nov 6 2021

Resurface – verb

re·sur·face | \ (,)rē-‘sər-fəs

: to provide with a new or fresh surface

Resurfacing—is an external exploration of surface and the material qualities of paint, as well as a reflection on a personal journey. These newest works mark a divergence in practice while remaining faithful to the subjects and threads that push it forward—growth, development, connection, and documentation spill out from the visible paint marks. Fluidity and image come together to inscribe a moment that is simultaneously an instant and a lifetime.

Water, both a physical and symbolic life force, invokes multiple congruent and contrasting meanings. Joy, fear, reflection, immersion, power, precarity, purity, renewal, movement, and stagnation are just some of the themes that emerged in the creation of this exhibition. These metaphors extend to various states of transition, transformation, and the intense negotiation with time which flows steadfast even as humanity pauses. A juxtaposition of vastness, limitation, listlessness, and possibility, the work touches on the inevitable and subjective transition through various stages of childhood while reflecting a similar shift between mother and artist.

Created in the confine and quiet imposed during the global pandemic, these paintings explore the anxiety and tension of indefinite holding in a privileged place of belonging, safety, and comfort. Exhibited now, as we begin to reconnect, Resurfacing asks us to consider what filled the space between then and now and who we might strive to become as we emerge.