Premio Combat Prize

€”My work is inextricably linked to the neighborhoods that I pass through, look at and document each day. Inspired by collages created from my photos, the urban scenes evoked in my present work reveal another space behind the layer of a first space as seen through cracks and arabesques. The people moving through these paradoxical urban spaces on foot, bicycle and motorcycle sometimes seem on the brink of wandering from one layer of space into another. The imagery of this project intends to evoke porosity between what is human and spatial or architectural by creating compositions that resonate with multiple experiences. The theme stems from my thoughts about how circumstance rules, and yet memory, dream, and desire allow one to slip through cracks and wander elsewhere. The layering of space reflects my interest in Gordon Matta-Clark’s split buildings and apertures carved out of the walls and floors of houses. Whereas Matta-Clark drew with a chain saw and sledgehammer on the raw material of buildings, I work on paper, first cutting my images of buildings with scissors, then remaking the collages digitally and then re-interpreting them through drawing, painting and print-making.”
Canadian artist Tanya Morand’s most recent solo exhibition was Paseando Entre las Grietras, at Brita Prinz Arte in Madrid, Spain. Exhibitions of her work have been featured in Canada, in the United States and Europe. Her artwork is included in the collections of The CPOA of the National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec, the Inno-Centre Collection in Montreal and the Art Bank of the Canada Council for the Arts, as well as numerous private collections. Her work has merited awards and grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, The Council of Arts and Letters of Quebec, SODEC and The Cecil Buller Foundation. Having completed a BFA at Concordia University, her MFA studies were funded by a Concordia University Graduate Fellowship and an F.C.A.R grant. Artist’s website: http://www.tanyamorand.com