Marianna Gartner: The bad season

Marianna Gartner is a painter of Canadian origins who now lives in Budapest. She studied painting and photography in Calgary. She has had regular exhibitions in Canada and in Europe since the second half of the 1980’s.

The unusual figures represented in her pictures have been partially inspired by the show of curiosities that took place in Calgary Stampede in the 70’s, which featured sideshow „circus freaks”. The mixed feeling of „aversion-attraction” which she developed as a child has led to serious research and has become the topic of a number of her pictures.

Another important aspect of Gartner’s works is that she uses old photos found in flea markets, antique shops and in family archives as a basis for her work. However, she „copies” and transforms only the figures of these photos, following their black and white tones, while the background, scene becomes the „Little shop of Horrors”. A small, naked child covered with tattoos with horns on his head and a snake in his hand; a little girl dressed in her Sunday best standing on a rope, holding her parrot on a leash; a child going on a Sunday walk with a skeleton in his hand.

The people’s expressions – like those of ancestors’ portraits hanging on the walls of a haunted castle – seem to be frighteningly distant.

The elements frequently introduced in her large size figural paintings, these literally diabolic details (monkeys, roosters, butterflies, and other strange creatures) create a magical-realistic total effect, which makes it difficult, or even impossible to decipher the narrative.

In his book, Reading Pictures: A History of Love and Hate (Random House, New York, 2000) the Canadian writer Alberto Manguel identified her bizarre pictures as belonging to the category of picture as a terrifying vision tracing them back to art history antecedents.

The tension carried by Gartner’s pictures is created by the contrast and mixture of portraits made of authentic photos and the strange creatures appearing together with them. This encounter is perhaps sometimes confusing, sometimes entertaining, but certainly extremely curious.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2002 Night Lights, Sable-Castelli Gallery, Toronto, Canada “Portraits dèsobligeants” CANADIAN CULTURAL CENTRE, PARIS “Stepping Out” SABLE-CASTELLI GALLERY, TORONTO, CANADA “Balancing Acts” SABLE-CASTELLI GALLERY, TORONTO, CANADA “The Glad Season” UNIVERSITY OF WINNIPEG, CANADA “Bugs, Babies, & Bones” BAU-XI GALLERY, VANCOUVER, CANADA “Myths & Images” BAU-XI GALLERY, VANCOUVER, CANADA “Rituals” MUTTART ART GALLERY, CALGARY, CANADA “Strange Obsessions” BAU-XI GALLERY, VANCOUVER, CANADA “Double Exposure” MYXDMEDIA GALLERY, CALGARY, CANADA 2001 2001 1999 1996 1996 1994 1993 1992 1991 “The Joy of Living” BARTON LEIER GALLERY, VICTORIA, CANADA “Reclaimed Images” VIRGINIA CHRISTOPHER GALLERIES, CALGARY, CANADA

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 1999 “New Visions…” FORUM GALLERY, NEW YORK, NY, USA “New Artists” SABLE-CASTELLI GALLERY, TORONTO, CANADA “Friends & Mentors” MUTTART GALLERY, CALGARY, CANADA 1998 "The Works & Collected Creatures" AFA, EDMONTON, CANADA "The Figurative Impulse" FORUM GALLERY, NEW YORK, NY, USA "Artfair Seattle '97" WASHINGTON STATE CON. CENTRE, SEATTLE, USA 1997 1996/97 "The Camera Obscured" EDMONTON ART GALLERY, EDMONTON, CANADA 1995 "Realism Revisited" MUTTART GALLERY, CALGARY, CANADA 1994 "The Human Factor" WHYTE MUSEUM, BANFF, CANADA 1993/94 "Young Contemporaries '93" LONDON REGIONAL ART GALLERY, LONDON, CANADA; BEAVERBROOK ART GALLERY, FREDERICTON, CANADA; ILLINGWORTH-KERR GALLERY, CALGARY, CANADA; RODMAN HALL, ST. CATHARINES, CANADA 1993 "Can. Artists to the Benefit of the O. Havel Found." GALLERIE PALLAS, PRAGUE "Artfair Seattle '92" SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, USA "Return to Exceptional Pass" WHYTE MUSEUM, BANFF, CANADA 1992 1990 "New Gallery Artists" VIRGINIA CHRISTOPHER GALLERY, CALGARY, CANADA "Under 30-Painting & Sculpture" TRIANGLE GALLERY, CALGARY, CANADA "Aspects of Realism" TRIANGLE GALLERY, CALGARY, CANADA "University of Calgary BFA Grads." NICKLE ARTS MUSEUM, CALGARY, CANADA 1989 1985 COLLECTIONS Alberta Art Foundation 1989, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1997 Alberta Treasury Branch, Dome Commission 1996 Canada Council Art Bank 1991, 1992 First City Financial Corp. VANCOUVER, CANADA The Nickle Arts Museum CALGARY, CANADA Department of Foreign Affairs CANADA The University of Winnipeg CANADA The Bailey Collection TORONTO, CANADA Rideau Hall OTTAWA, CANADA Private Collections CANADA, USA, EUROPE Le Ring, Art Foundation, Nantes, France MARIANNA GARTNER REVIEWS & ARTICLES Pietrzok, Marion. "Litera. zur Leipziger Messe" NEUES DEUTSCHLAND. MARCH 22-25, 2001 Ceccatty, de Rene. "L'esthete et la femme a barbe" LE MONDE. APRIL 27, 2001 Palmer, Alasdair. "Bad men but good art" SUNDAY TELEGRAPH. APRIL 1, 2001 Manguel, Alberto. Reading Pictures: A History of Love & Hate KNOPF CANADA. 2000 Bailey, Bruce. "The Collectors" NATIONAL POST, WEEKEND POST ARTS. JANUARY 22, 2000 Mackay, Gillian. "Of moose heads & moccasins" THE GLOBE & MAIL. NOVEMBER 20, 1999 Hume, Christopher. "Art by Numbers" THE TORONTO STAR. NOVEMBER. 20, 1999 Martin, James. "artsy Types" CALGARY: SECRETS OF THE CITY. ARSENAL PULP PRESS Manguel, Alberto. "Marianna Gartner" DESCANT 106. VOLUME 30, NUMBER 3, FALL, 1999 Simm, Brad. "The Strange Ways of M. Gartner" THE CALGARY STRAIGHT. VOL. 2, NO. 68, OCTOBER 14-21, 1999 Mackay Gillian. "…terrifying tots" THE GLOBE & MAIL. FEBRUARY 27, 1999 Varadi, Zoltan. "Super Freak Chic" THE CALGARY STRAIGHT. VOL. 1, NO. 1, JULY 1998 Gustafson, Paula. "Bugs, Babies & Bones" ARTICHOKE. SPRING, VOL. 9, NO. 1, 1997 Abercrombie, Nora. "Camera Obscura" VUE WEEKLY. NOVEMBER 20, 1996. Webber, Jennifer. "Rough Cutz on the Arts" CBC TV. JULY, 1996 Bucholz, Garth. "Grim Art…" WINNIPEG FREE PRESS. OCTOBER 5, 1996 Schmaltz, Ken. "Portrait of an Artist" AVENUE. NOVEMBER ,1995 Enright, Robert. "Anamolous Art" BORDER CROSSINGS. WINTER, 1995 Laurence, Robin. "…Shifting Identities" THE VANCOUVER SUN. OCTOBER 8, 1994 Lord, Barry. "?? Under thirty: The New Figuration" ARTFOCUS. FALL, 1994 Tousley, Nancy. "Canadian Message found in Rituals" THE CALGARY HERALD. FEBRUARY 3, 1993 Collins, Jeff. "Interview - The Homestretch" CBC-RADIO. JANUARY 28, 1993 Rosenberg, Ann. "Magic Weaves…" THE VANCOUVER SUN. AUGUST 29, 1992 Cope, Gord. "Past Forward" THE CALGARY HERALD SUNDAY MAGAZINE. MAY 19, 1991

2000 1993/94 1990 1989 AWARDS Canada Council for the Arts Project Grant Alberta Foundation for the Arts Visual Project Grant Alberta Culture Project Grant The Banff Centre Scholarship EDUCATION Museum & Art Gallery Management THE BANFF CENTRE, BANFF, CANADA Independent Studies, Photography UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY, CANADA Bachelor of Fine Arts, Painting & Photography UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY 1990 1986 1985