presents LARYSSA LUHOVY IMAGO
Laryssa Luhovy's large paintings suggest a sign we may read as a Freudian imago.An archetype of femininity, this is an image drawn with ever so light a touch. The painter's gesture seems to link together the psyches of a long line of women. One woman questions her place in the world as she glances wistfully across the expanse of her mother's memory. Verticals seemingly traced by a razor blade hint at wounds that aren't fully scarred. Yet such cuts also conjure up a mineral world, a pristine reality destined to outlast mankind. The artist thus guides us from the outline of portrait to eternity itself. As it is said, a picture is worth a thousand words! Let us contemplate the background of the painting. Beyond existential questions, Laryssa's limpid skies, recurrent as if they were prayers, open widely the gates of an Orthodox paradise, all made of Platonic ecstasy and eternal purity. The shining centre is surrounded by darker blues and greens suggesting watery reflections and mineral formations ó reminders of lava eruptions. What a dialogue between "heaven" and earth! The intensely lyrical female being evoked by the artist is also deeply, subtly erotic. This chaste gaze really knows how to beckon at us; indeed, to what heavenly delights are we invited? And the sadness of this quizzical visage may also look profound, but it is not immutable. On the surface of it, sadness is undesirable, but as philosopher Emil Cioran pointed out, existential despair may turn into a force, the foundation of all joie de vivre. A yin element dwells in these pictures. Femininity is also composed of empty spaces, which keep up tension and let the surface, the skin breathe. An emptiness waiting to be filled; the adolescent girl expecting life's theater ó perhaps happiness. Lately, in Laryssa Luhovy's tachisme, one finds a trace, an echo of the archetypal figure. The line turns vigorous and sometimes dissonant: a personality in the process of self-assertion. The artist ventures towards post-modern esthetics, where dissonance, heterogeneousness are avenues of exploring the unknown. Tomorrow may surprise us, may startle us, and as yet we don't know how. Andre Seleanu Journalist and art critic, Montreal, March 16, 2001.	La vie est un songe, acrylic on canvas, 122cm X 122cm
Polka dots summer and jet stream, acrylic on canvas, 122cm X 122cm	Les grandes toiles de Laryssa Luhovy proposent un signe que nous pouvons lire comme un "imago" freudien. Archetype de la feminite, cette image quíelle effleure a peine reunit les esprits díune longue lignee de femmes. Une femme síinterroge sur sa place au monde a travers la memoire díune mereÖ Des verticales tracees "au rasoir" sont comme des blessures plus ou moins cicatrisees. Ces coupures sont aussi des allusions au monde des mineraux, au cote esthetique de quelque chose qui survivra a líhumanite. De la suggestion du portrait a líeternel! A picture is worth a thousand words, níest-ce pas? Regardons le fond de la toile. Au-dela de la discrete interrogation existentielle, le ciel limpide que Laryssa ne cesse díinvoquer ouvre grand les portails díun paradis orthodoxe, tout díextase platonicien et de purete eternelle. En bleus et verts plus fonces, ce centre etincelant est cerne de lueurs aquatiques et meme minerales (rappels díeruptions volcaniques), dialogue en fait entre "le ciel" et la terre. Surprise; le lyrisme intense de cet etre feminin que líartiste fait apparaitre est petri díun erotisme subtil, pour ceux qui veulent bien le percevoir. Un regard chaste qui sait aussi inviter ó a quels bonheurs celestes? La tristesse de ce visage peut paraitre intense, mais elle níest pas irremediable. Au premier degre la tristesse est indesirable, mais vue de plus pres, comme nous enseigne Cioran, meme le desespoir existentiel devient une force, la base de toute joie de vivre. Il y a un element yin dans ces toiles. La feminite est aussi faite de vides, grace auxquels la surface respire et la tension est maintenue. Le vide qui attend a etre rempli, la fille en attente du theatre de la vie, peut-etre du bonheur. Dernierement, dans le tachisme de Laryssa Luhovy, il reste une trace, un echo du visage archetypal. Un trait vigoureux, parfois dissonant díune personnalite qui síaffirmeÖ Elle síaventure dans une esthetique post-moderne, ou la dissonance, la heterogeneite sont des explorations vers líinconnu. Que nous reserve demain? Andre Seleanu Journaliste et critique díart, Montreal, le 7 mars 2001 Inquiries: Laryssa Luhovy 356 Olivier Avenue, Westmount, Que, H3Z 2C9 / Telephone 514-933-7429