Additional Images

Provenance:

Courtesy of the artist; Bradley Ertaskiran, Montréal. Photo by Paul Litherland.

The Work & Artist Bio

Poppy (half face), 2021, is a wistful, tentative, lovely, open face. Three cuts divide and move the eye left to right across the canvas. A deep pink bar on the left shifts to a lighter pink in the middle and against this is the third section or band which is the half face of Poppy, also in the pink. The canvas’ right hand edge bisects Poppy who, nevertheless looks hopeful, even eager, faun-like and receptive. The poppy flower calls up vivid red and a scallop of this bright hue is solid at the lower edge of the canvas — the top of her dress making a kind of Valentine gift of this sweet subject. Included in her recent book, Janet Werner, Sticky Pictures, 2022, published in collaboration by the Musee d’art contemporary, Griffin Art Projects and Figure 1 Publishing Inc, in the section titled, “There There,” Poppy’s half face asks, Why the intersection? What is the other half, why the split? Where the division in the other works, reads as an image divided, in this soft painting the viewer is left instead with vulnerability as a tender concluding sentiment.

Janet Werner lives and works in Montréal, Québec, and holds an MFA from Yale University (New Haven). Her work as a painter focuses on the fictional portrait as a vehicle to explore notions of subjectivity and desire and operates within and against the genre of conventional portraiture, taking found images of anonymous figures in popular culture and imbuing them with fictional personalities. Notable recent solo exhibitions include “Call Me When You Start Wearing Red” (2023) at Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles, California; “Crush” (2022) at Arsenal Contemporary, NYC, New York; “There There” (2021) at Bradley Ertaskiran, Montréal; “Janet Werner” (2019) at Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal and “What time is it, Mr. Wolf?” (2019) at Art Gallery of Guelph. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at Almine Rech, Brussels and Kasmin, NYC, New York, among others, and her work has been exhibited at art fairs including Frieze NY and The Armory Show. Werner’s work is in the collection of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, The Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), the Canadian Embassy in Berlin, Canada Council Art Bank (Ottawa), University of Lethbridge (Alberta), the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Remai Modern (Saskatoon), and numerous private and corporate collections. Her work has been included in numerous publications including Art Forum, Frieze, Border Crossings, The Globe and Mail, and Canadian Art. She is represented by Bradley Ertaskiran, Montréal and Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles.

Between the Glossies and the Grotesque Janice Werner Paints a World, Border Crossings Issue 153, 2020

Someone Someone Nothing: Some Throughts on Janet Werner's Recent Paintings, Border Crossings Issue 126, 2013

Mute Ability: Janet Werner Changes the Face of Portraiture, Border Crossings Issue 83, 2002

Artist's Website

Bradley Ertaskiran

Anat Ebgi Gallery

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