Nicholas Metivier Gallery is pleased to announce Sayulita Suite: Gouache Works on Paper, a solo exhibition of work by Landon Mackenzie. The exhibition will open on September 9th and run until October 6th. An opening reception will take place on Saturday, September 9th between 1 and 3 pm.
Widely admired for her immersive large-format paintings, Landon Mackenzie’s works on paper demonstrate her sensibility for detail and layering in a different way. Small and immediate, they are remarkably expressive and explore a range of coloured marks while preserving the essence of the rare paper she uses. Paper, a more transportable medium than canvas, allow new contexts to inspire her work when travelling.
In early 2023, Mackenzie spent one month in Sayulita, a charming fishing and surfing town on the west coast of Mexico. Using an old red suitcase as her portable studio, she filled it with precut boards, fine papers, brushes, gouache and gesso to take with her. The circles that appear in these latest works are tracings of found objects, starting with a round metal rimmed whiskey box, then bowls, containers and jars.
I made about ten works on Asian papers altered with thin coats of gesso that I was happy with, influenced intuitively by the patterns and colours that were all around me. When I got back to Vancouver, I pulled them out of the suitcase and carried on.
- Landon Mackenzie
Mackenzie’s choice of traditional gouache, an opaque paint with a similar consistency to tubed watercolour, achieves rich and vibrant colours that perfectly capture the historical and celebratory spirit of Sayulita. The patterns and colours that she encountered in everyday life there intuitively influenced her daily practice.
