Marie Le Lievre's paintings are perceptual interlocutors. They are spirited entities that participate in shaping and mediating our sensory experiences. Le Lievre works within self-defined categories and series, each with their own characteristics. Loot isms includes new work from Le Lievre's House, Stacked, Tomes, and Paraphernalia series, and paintings from the new Loot series. The colours, forms, layers, and textures of each possess distinct identities. A significant part of her work as a painter lies in the experience of working with the medium in a process of discovery, engaging tactility and introspection. For Le Lievre, each painting is a "dialogue between [her] private inscape and the public world." In turn, the paintings engage the viewer in dialogue and evoke a personal connection, inviting us to explore the nature of our perceptions, and encouraging a sense of something greater beyond ourselves, something that might be unknowable. As a perceptual interlocutor, what the painting reveals is between it and the viewer.
Writing about Marie Le Lievre’s work, a critic once said: 'Let the intensely pleasurable experience of looking at these paintings be the only focus'. In the same review he described Le Lievre as having an 'extraordinary ability to manipulate liquid paint into mesmerising sensual surfaces on canvas'. Underlying those surfaces are references to the ongoing discussion around the connotations and relevance of abstract expressionism.
Two Rooms is a contemporary art exhibition venue located in a converted warehouse in Central Auckland, New Zealand. Opened in August 2006, Two Rooms presents a program of residencies and projects by leading International and New Zealand contemporary artists. The building houses two exhibition spaces, the Project Room and the Long Room.
