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THE CARNIVAL COMES TO TOWN | Pamela Cockcroft-Lasserre
July 7, 2016 - October 1, 2016
‘THE CARNIVAL COMES TO TOWN’
Solo Exhibition
Pamela Cockcroft-Lasserre
July 7, 2016 – September 30, 2016
7 juillet 2016 au 30 septembre 2016
347 Preston Street,
Ottawa, Ontario
Biography
Pamela Cockcroft-Lasserre studied Fine Art in London, England, graduated with Credit Distinction, and returned to South Africa to practise as an artist, teach European Art History, write art critiques for the Cape Times and work as a Gallery Custodian. Finally settling in the Gatineau Hills, she currently teaches at the Ottawa School of Art and has a studio where her practice involves mainly drawing and painting the figure, while also engaging in trips to Italy and South Africa to paint in watercolour.
She exhibits regularly in various group shows with periodic solo exhibitions in the National Capital Region. Her interaction with the National Gallery has involved demonstrating and teaching figure drawing, being an invitational speaker in the Study Room and a featured artist in their Studio Tour programme.
Her work is carried by Orange Gallery and can be found in private collections in South Africa, France, the USA and Canada.
Artist Statement
I have chosen to weave a miscellany of recent and very recent paintings into a loosely knit narrative located in and around a fairground where people dance tango in the streets, children ride the carousel and folk from every walk of life come to forget disturbing realities, to imagine, to exchange fantasy for reality and even to prey upon others – essentially to get a away from it all – see respectively “Remember to Forget” where the tragedy in Paris (remember Charlie) was on my mind, Goldenberg literally floating home, pick pockets lurking, and even a chimp, our distant relative making good his escape.
Part of the pleasure of creating these works involved research time and dancing in Buenos Aires (tango), visiting Paris and New York (carousels) and painting to the strains of tango music and Mussorgsky’s magnificent piano composition “Pictures at an Exhibition”. All have contributed richly to the outcome of each piece.
Searching beneath the painted skin, one could discover a plethora of human emotions – desire and sorrow, tenderness and fear, exhilaration and disappointment – all occur in our everyday lives, but with intensity when Carnival comes to town.
