EXPOVILION

“We’ve created it. It’s not something that is being done to us. We’re making it. That’s what I find so incredibly interesting in being in the world at this time. “ (Wanda Koop) Wanda Koop’s EXPOVILION presents us with yet another side of our predicament as humans in the 20c. Building on her overarching critique of how modes of technology affect nature and her deep engagement with what it means to be human at this time, here we find ourselves once again looking at ourselves.
In Koop’s body of work Satellite Cities (2001- 2003), a cluster of cityscapes grows on a flat disk, a floating industrialized planet. In Expovilion (2008), a suite of smaller paintings, we slide into one of these familiar yet disquieting cities and experience a less somber vision. With decisive calligraphic brush strokes and brilliant chromatic shifts, Koop here depicts a more endearing side of human nature. Here we find fanciful and imaginative architectural sites of delight and desire, moments of enchantment in a world built by humans for their own pleasure. In their Expovilion they show themselves to themselves in a somewhat poignant state of desire.
This artist book titled Expovilion reproduces and prints 14 paintings from this series in their original scale. It is printed on canvas with mulberry paper interleafing and is hand bound with a hard cover.

Wanda Koop’s painting career spans three decades and includes over 50 solo exhibitions. Her work is included in numerous international private and museum collections including the National Gallery of Canada, which together with the Winnipeg Art Gallery, is preparing a major exhibition of Koop’s work. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including Doctors of Letters from the University of Winnipeg, and the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, as well as a Doctor of Laws from the University of Manitoba. She is a Member of the Order of Canada, and founder of Art City, an inner city art centre in Winnipeg. She is represented by the Birch Libralato in Toronto, the Michael Gibson Gallery in London, Ontario and Buro Dijkstra, Rotterdam, ND. She lives and works in Winnipeg.