Keer Tanchak & Janet Werner: Romantik

April 17 - May 15,2021

From the gallery: "12.26 is pleased to present a two-person exhibition by Canadian-born artists Keer Tanchak and Janet Werner entitled Romantik. Tanchak and Werner met in the early 2000’s when they were introduced by their mutual friend, artist Allison Katz. Over the last two decades both artists’ work and career have been inexorably linked through their shared interest in modern female portraiture and as well as their mutual affinity towards imagery from fashion shared interest in modern female magazines, pop culture and art history. This exhibition is the culmination of a two-year conversation between these two artists. Romantik presents an intimate dialogue of two dynamic female painters with a penchant for storytelling and dismantling traditional notions of portraiture, the “male gaze” and even painting itself. Both artists present a fictitious female protagonist that is often face-forwarding, taunting and advancing. Utilizing the classic painter’s tools of oil paint and a stretched canvas, Werner possesses a traditional approach to painting. Yet it is clear that Werner’s figures are anything but typical. They are often depicted in displaced landscapes or unknown voids that may seem vaguely familiar, but not of this world. Most strikingly is the confidence and self-assurance in the women that Werner paints. The viewer is not invited to gaze upon the figure in the more conventional or romantic sense, but is rather challenged by what is directly in front of them. Tanchak paints her subjects in a more classical style of portraiture, lending her subjects a distinct sweetness and vulnerability. This sweetness is swiftly broken by her usage of sharp, odd-shaped, hand-cut aluminum as her painting surface, suggesting something more sinister might be at stake. After placing these women within irregular or jagged borders, Tanchak further confounds the viewer by presenting the figure in these unexplored worlds or voids. She challenges the viewer on how exactly to enter the painting, giving power to the subject as they, and the artist, are the only ones who hold the key to unlocking these unknown spaces. These paintings at first glance may seem to offer us hints of classical romanticism, but Romantik suggests that there is a dark and surreal side of the saccharine. Keer Tanchak (b. 1977, North Vancouver, BC) is a Canadian artist currently based in Dallas, TX. She received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2003 and a BFA with distinction from Concordia University in Montreal in 2000. Tanchak won the Artist Fellowship Award from the Illinois Arts Council in 2009 and the Brucebo residency in Visby, Sweden in 2003. She has exhibited extensively in Canada and the United States as well as in London, Switzerland, Dubai, and Mexico. Tanchak had her first solo institutional show at Dallas Contemporary entitled Soft Orbit in 2017. That same year, Tanchak was included in the Texas Biennial. Tanchak was featured at Conduit Gallery (Dallas, TX) in their project room in 2019. Romantik marks Tanchak’s first exhibition at the gallery. Janet Werner (b. 1959, Winnipeg, Manitoba) lives and works in Montreal, Quebec. She received her MFA from Yale University in 1987. Solo exhibitions include Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Parisian Laundry (Montreal), Anat Ebgi (Los Angeles, CA), Galerie Julia Garnatz (Cologne), Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts (Montreal), Whatiftheworld Gallery (Cape Town) and Plug Institute of Contemporary Art(Winnipeg). Group exhibitions include AXENEO7 (Gatineau), MASS MoCA (North Adams), Musée d’art contemporain (Montreal), Kenderdine Art Gallery (Saskatoon). A solo survey exhibition entitled “Another Perfect Day” organized by the Kenderdine Art Gallery, University of Saskatchewan, toured to five locations in Canada from 2013- 2015. Werner’s work is in the collections of the Musée du Québec, Musée d’art contemporain, Montreal, The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Toronto, Owens Art Gallery, Sackville, the Canadian Embassy in Berlin, University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Winnipeg Art Gallery and numerous private and corporate collections. Romantik marks Werner’s first exhibition at the gallery and in Texas."

On View: April 17, 2021 | 12-8 pm

12.26 150 Manufacturing Street
Dallas, Texas 75207
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