Marie Finkelstein

Peoplescapes: Social Interactions

July 17 - 31, 2008
Opens Thursday July 17, 6:30-9:30pm

Marie Finkelstein is a Toronto artist who has exhibited in both solo and group shows in Toronto and Ottawa. She studied art in Montreal where she was born and raised, and in Banff, Boston, and Toronto.

Marie's new series of works, Peoplescapes: Social Interactions, is based on snapshots taken of people in parks, cafes, on the street and at the seaside, relating to and among one another in time and space. The viewer has become a spectator, looking at the people coupled and grouped together or individuals alone among the crowd, as captured in that particular moment in time. The paintings examine how the patterns of light and shadow, shape and colour, can shift to highlight certain figures, changing the observer's perceptions of the ties between them: Who belongs with whom? What is the nature of the interactions depicted? Are they superficial, like a chance meeting in a park, or based on a casual friendship or a more intimate relationship? Who and what constitutes the family unit? Can today's observer know for certain, particularly in this climate of social change?

Marie was educated, trained and qualified as a lawyer. She has combined her interest in the law and human relationships with people-watching in these new paintings. In modern life, long-accepted norms about the nature of the relationships that underpin our social structures are in flux, subject to ever- increasing re-evaluation. This is reflected more and more in the changing legal rules regarding our most intimate relationships, whether within or outside the construct of marriage, and governing sexuality, spouses, children and community, as our society deals with inter-personal relationships in transition. Now, even a simple pastime like people-watching is no longer straight-forward and uncomplicated.