MAGALIE GUÉRIN
some mondegreens
June 8 – July 28, 2023
The title of the exhibition refers to the phonological concept of the mondegreen: an instance of aural misinterpretation, such as a misheard line of lyrics, that gives the words or phrases new meanings. Fundamentally, mondegreens arise from the human mind’s own desire for comprehension, enacting a process through which the unfamiliar becomes recognized, signified, and assimilated into one’s understanding of the world. Guérin is interested in this framework and its semiotic implications; the paintings in some mondegreens ask us to consider the creation of narratives, systems of internal logic, and the space between perception and the making of meaning.
The figure/ground relationship is foundational to Guérin’s compositional approach, and a generative source of unexpected pictorial interactions. Limb-like channels of paint sweep against palpably molded striations and low-relief surfaces. Geometric patterns unfold and situate themselves amongst sensorial congregations of color: rustling greens, steely grays, desert beiges, and vivid oranges. What distinguishes a brushstroke, a space of color, a ridge of built-up medium from each other calls for an openness to shifting visual interpretations. It is ideas of narrative and continuity, rather than any specific system of abstraction or representation, that serve as a guiding focus in Guérin’s work. She describes a “pre-history” of texture, the layer upon which painted fabula shift, divide, and connect. From there, each painting develops its self-contained sequence of logic, a morphological trajectory being perpetually molded.
This sense of cultivated interiority within each work becomes mirrored by the external, subjective experience of encountering it. Guérin’s mid-size canvases roughly correspond to the level and dimension of a human torso, emphasizing the viewing subject’s physical and psychological proximity to the work. Any and all associations, memories, references, and sensory impressions avail themselves to the viewer, interpreting the painting free of any definitive mimetic boundaries. The initial encounter of an unfamiliar image becomes a channel of recognition, constructing a narrative of individual meaning as forms, spaces, textures, and colors are made known once more.
Magalie Guérin (b. Montreal, 1973) is based in Marfa, TX, and holds an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago (2011). Recent solo shows include exhibitions at Corbett vs Dempsey, Chicago, IL (2022); Amanda Wilkinson Gallery, London (2020); Chapter NY, New York (2019); Galerie Nicolas Robert, Montreal; and James Harris, Seattle, WA (2018). Her work is included in the public collections of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, CA; Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY; DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL; The Art Museum of West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV; Collection Hydro-Québec; and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. She is the author of NOTES ON, a compilation of studio writings published by The Green Lantern Press in 2016 (second edition 2019). Guérin was awarded the Pace Award for a mid-career painter at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, RI, (2019) and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant and Chinati Foundation residency (2018).
Untitled (AM), 2022 Oil on canvas on panel 20 × 16 inches (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
Untitled (GT), 2023 Oil on canvas on panel 20 × 16 inches (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
Untitled (CG), 2023 Oil on canvas
Untitled (PB), 2023 Oil on canvas
Untitled (JP), 2023 Oil on canvas on panel 30 × 24 inches (76.2 × 61 cm)
Untitled (CH), 2023 Oil on canvas
Untitled (CC2), 2023 Oil on canvas on panel 30 × 24 inches (76.2 × 61 cm)
Untitled (CTG), 2023 Oil on canvas on panel 30 × 24 inches (76.2 × 61 cm)
Untitled (EM), 2023 Oil on canvas on panel 30 × 24 inches (76.2 × 61 cm)
Untitled (A), 2023 Oil on canvas
Untitled (SF), 2023 Oil on canvas
MAGALIE GUÉRIN
Born 1973, Montreal, Canada
Lives and works in Marfa, TX
EDUCATION
2011 MFA, Painting, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL
SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2023 some mondegreens, Sikkema Jenkins & Co, New York, NY, June 8 – July 28, 2023
2022 The Eaters, Marfa Book Company, Marfa, TX
hard green, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL, June 10 – August 6, 2022
2020 A Bow Down, Galerie Nicolas Robert, Montreal, Canada, November 28, 2020 – January 16, 2021
Magalie Guérin: q p, Amanda Wilkinson Gallery, London, UK, July 1 – August 8, 2020
The Big Dig: Magalie Guérin, The Lekeitio Drawings, Corbett vs. Dempsey (Virtual)
2019 Magalie Guérin & Philippe Caron Lefebvre, Galerie Nicolas Robert, Montréal, Quebec, Canada, May 25 – June 29, 2019
SOLUTE, Chapter NY, New York, NY, February 17 – March 24, 2019
2018 The Marfa Paintings, James Harris Gallery, Seattle, WA, October 14 – November 30, 2018
Morgenspaziergang, Schwarz Contemporary, Berlin, Germany, June 29 – July 28, 2018
bunker, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL, January 26 – March 10, 2018
2017 No Body Knows, Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles, CA, April 22 – May 27, 2017
2016 Magalie Guérin, soon.tw, Montréal, Quebec, Canada, October 12 – November 12, 2016
Copy Drawings, Sector 2337, Chicago, IL, March 25 – May 15, 2016
2015 Magalie Guérin, Lyles & King, New York, NY, September 4 – October 4, 2015
Magalie Guérin & Ross Normandin, Roots & Culture, Chicago, IL, April 24 – May 23, 2015
2014 The Suburban, Oak Park, IL, December 2014 re, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL, September 5 – October 11, 2014
2013 Magalie Guérin: Paintings 2009-2013, Knox College Gallery, Galesburg, IL
2012 The Warmest Guest, Autumn Space, Chicago, IL, February 18 – March 10, 2012
2010 The Cracks of the Game, Autumn Space, Chicago, IL, October 9 - 23, 2010
2006 Unrequited, Miller Block Gallery, Boston, MA, September 9 – October 17, 2006
2004 The Devil In Me, GV/AS Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 Friendship’s Death, Andrew Rafacz, Chicago, IL, June 2 – July 15, 2023
2022 Summer School of Painting, Ox-Bow School of Art, Saugatuck, MI, June 10 – September 2, 2022 A Rhythm, Not a Plot, Galerie Nicolas Robert, Toronto, Canada, January 13 – February 19, 2022
2021 Peep Show, Anton Kern WINDOW, New York, NY, September 8 – October 31, 2021
2020 Cosmic Meteorites & Other Burners, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL, July 17 – August 22, 2020
2019 Body/Object, George Adams Gallery, New York, NY, July 11 – August 23, 2019
Small Painting, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL, June 28 – August 17, 2019
With a Capital P: Selections by Six Painters, Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, IL, July 11 –August 23, 2019
2018 Local Comfort, LVL3 Gallery, Chicago, IL, September 22 – November 4, 2018
Got a light?, curated by Assaf Evron, The Suburban, Milwaukee, WI
2017 American Genre: Contemporary Painting, curated by Michelle Grabner, Institute of Contemporary Art at MECAD, Portland, ME, July 20 – September 15, 2017
Stranger Things, DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL, June 21 – August 6, 2017
2016 New American Paintings: Midwest Edition, Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, IL, May 16 –August 23, 2015
Known Unknowns: Painting in Chicago, Cleve Carney Museum of Art, College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL, June 2 – July 29, 2016
Cabinet in the Mirror, Nicelle Beauchene, New York, NY, March 17 – April 17, 2016
IMAGINE, Brand New Gallery, Milan, Italy, March 2 – April 2, 2016
2015 Found/Made: 2015 Studio Art Faculty Exhibit, Cleve Carney Museum of Art, College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL, December 3, 2015 – January 23, 2016
The Suburban Milwaukee: 16 Years, Mount Airy Contemporary, Philadelphia, PA, October 3-31, 2015
Other Planes of There, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL, July 18 – August 29, 2015
Abstraction: A Visual Language, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL, June 12 – July 31, 2015
All In, Riverside Arts Center, Riverside, IL, January 25 – February 21, 2015
2014 Making Space, curated by Susanne Doremus, Zolla / Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL, April 4 –May 3, 2014
2013 Slow Read, Glass Curtain Gallery, Chicago, IL, September 3 – November 2, 2013
Surface, Judith Racht Gallery, Harbert, MI
Reading Room, organized by Sean Ward, Julius Caesar, Chicago, IL, May 5-26, 2013
2012 The Question of their Content, Zolla / Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL, February 3 – March 17, 2012
2011 A project by Philip von Zweck, Invisible-Exports, New York, NY, November 11-13, 2011
Cloud Gate, Monya Rowe Gallery, New York, NY, November 10, 2011 – January 7, 2012
Reduction or Something Less, LVL3, Chicago, IL, September 24 – October 23, 2011
Irritable Abstraction, curated by Susanne Doremus, Julius Caesar, Chicago, IL, April 3-24, 2011
2010 The Great Poor Farm Experiment II (year-long installation, collaboration with Sean Ward), Poor Farm, Manawa, WI
2009
Fuckheads: Portraiture for the Silicon Enlightenment, curated by Angela Dufresne, SCA
Contemporary Art, Albuquerque, NM
2007 Just a Ghostly Paper Sigh, 31Grand, New York, NY
No New Tale To Tell, 31Grand, New York, NY
Nature/Nurture, Miller Block Gallery, Boston, MA, July 3 – August 18, 2007
2006 Other worlds, 31Grand, Brooklyn, NY
Love Will Tear Us Apart, The National Arts Club, New York, NY, June 13- 25, 2006
Unless: An Exhibition of Artists Concerned About Our Environment, Miller Block Gallery, Boston, MA, June 15 – July 29, 2006
Deluge, Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, CA, May 12 – June 18, 2006
2005 Something is Somewhere, Monya Rowe Gallery, New York, NY, June 2 – July 29, 2005
2004 I’ve Met Someone Else, Monya Rowe Gallery, New York, NY, September 9 – October 16, 2004
AWARDS/HONORS/FELLOWSHIPS
2021 Clay Break Residency, UARK Ceramics, Fayetteville, AR
2020 Anonymous was a Woman Emergency Relief Fund
2019 Stephen Pace Residency Award for a Mid-Career Painter, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA
2018 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant
Lighton International Artists Exchange Program Grant
SomoS Residency (May-July), Berlin, Germany
Chinati Foundation Residency (March-April), Marfa, TX
2015 New American Painting, Midwest Competition, Issue #119
2013 Ox-Bow Residency, Saugatuck, MI: John M. Hartigan Memorial Scholarship for Painters and the Dale Metternich Memorial Scholarship
2008 Millay Colony, Austerlitz, New York (June)
2005 Jentel Artist Residency Program, Banner, WY (January 15 – February 15)
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA
Collection Hydro-Québec, Québec, Canada
Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Québec, Canada
DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL
Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
The Art Museum of West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV
