To slip in between two clouds, to meet dawn in a clearing, to contemplate the snow’s blue glow … or to cross would-be mythical waters: why not? Just as much as one can melt into a garden where perfumes become visible or become one with a shadow, or even penetrate skin and cross into a carnal unknown… Sailing between imagination and reality, vision and sensation; worlds blend. Recognition is established where words are not enough, instinctive identification, such are Catherine Maria Chapel’s “Crossings”. A reminder that the verb “to cross” signifies both the physical passage from one end of a space to another as well as the experience of living an emotion, of being crossed by, of being inside, - and thus – feeling alive.

The project is ambitious and the means simple: abstract painting meaning a concentration of visions and forms, a distance from the known image in order to suggest one that renders perceptible another part of our reality. Abstract equally in the way that she tends to describe visually and with more or less substantial tangible matters – such as water colour, ink, pastels and paper – that which belongs to the emotional, the sensory, the mental, that subtle intimate and fugitive relation which connects us at all times with ourselves, others and all that surrounds us. The inspiration is symbolist with a form of mystique inscribed; the crossing also implies a desire for transcendence.

Whom is familiar with the works of Catherine Maria Chapel will notice an evolution towards a loosening up, more raw and more dynamic. A form of violence is introduced; strokes are often large, yet cohabitate with delicate very detailed zones abounding with blooming seeds of pigment, luminous halos of colour drops as well as incisions and scarifications of the paper surface. A matter which is more substantial, more insistent – pastels - have equally found their place: they encircle, underline and anchor where the almost immaterial transparency of the water colour veils and ink is the matter of darkness. Compositions are frontal, the foreground is often presented as an obstacle to cross or a kind of “frame” opening onto a perspective in the background (at dawn, Crossings, Bedazzlement) or else visions are close up – either immense or tiny (Eden, Naiads I and II).
A great feeling of intensity emerges from the body of work. Face to face with Crossings we are drawn in.

Catherine Maria Chapel (1968-....) was a student of Luigi Tomaso d'Elia. Since 1992 her work has been the subject of exhibitions in France, in Singapore and New York. The coming exhibition is her second show at the GALERIE MARIA LUND – preceded by LANDS GLIMPSED (2008). In Paris her work has also been presented at the Salon du dessin contemporain (2007 and 2008) as well as in the exhibition DESSIN – AFFIRMATIF! (2009) at the GALERIE MARIA LUND. In 2006, the artist benefited from a residence at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Connecticut.

• From 6.03.2010 works by Catherine Maria Chapel will be visible on www.marialund.com
  
• PUBLISHING of a leaflet with reproductions of a selection of works and a text by the art historian Laura Gutman Hanhivaara.
  
• OPENING: Thursday 11th March 2010 from 6pm to 9pm, the artist will be present.
• The exhibition ends Saturday 24th April 2010.

For further information about the  availability of visuals, please contact :
GALERIE MARIA LUND     48 rue de Turenne     75003 Paris

Tuesday-Saturday 12-7 pm
ph : (33) 01 42 76 00 33    cellphone : (33) 06 61 15 99 91    fax :(33) 01 42 76 00 10