Self-taught artist Natalie Bruvels released her latest series LVNDSCVPES at La Petite Mort Gallery May 24.
LVNDSCVPES playfully uses the image of the ‘vagina dentata’ (latin for toothed vagina) to illustrate the fear and awe of a Canadian settler sailing into the St. Lawrence River.
“When you’re coming into the St. Lawrence, it’s almost like you’re going into a vagina dentata. A toothed, harrowing, man’s greatest nightmare” said Bruvels.
The title, like her series, is a play on the fusion of landscape with figurative painting.
“It’s somewhat a play on the ‘vagina dentata’ and people have been looking at my paintings and saying ‘Does she know they’re not landscapes? Does she get it, what is she doing?’” Bruvels explained.
However, Bruvels’ work is anything but harrowing. It’s a sensual orgasm with its vibrant, boldly dripping palette.
“Rainbow Connection” displays a seemingly abstract landscape of two figures making love.
“I like it cause it’s like the colours are being drained out of the rainbow and put into the amorist couple. It’s very lively,” she said.
Gallery director Guy Bérubé was pleased with Bruvel’s return to her beginning emphasis on the female nude after a brief depart to explore the innocent subject matter of a baby’s face in her June 2012 solo show Baby Beast.
“The content, where we’re obviously looking at physical landscapes of people fucking, I was surprised not because it was graphic in content, but because I thought they were vulnerable once again,” he said.
“Are we looking at content that’s personal, or that’s fantasy, or imaginary, or is it something she pulled from the Internet? I’ve never asked her. I just took them for what they are.”
Bruvels said she hopes viewers will take away “the playfulness of sex” from her work.
“I just loved the female form and I am drawn to it. I am drawn to the beauty, from the seemingly grotesque to absolutely everything about the female form,” she said.
“I know a lot of people who love the colour I use but they wish I would change the subject matter. I’m not trying to do anything to try and make someone uncomfortable. It’s not invading your privacy. It’s something that most of us enjoy and it’s also interesting to me.”
“Colossus” is a risqué landscape interpretation of a statue known as “The Colossus of Rhodes,” one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The statue was believed to stand over the harbour as boats came in between its legs.
Bruvels translates this into a stoic female penetrated by the penis.
Bruvels said she considers “Colossus” a landscape because it has certain qualities.
“There’s the trees in the background and it’s almost like the mountains are making out. It’s silly but its playful and its fun and doesn’t always have to be ultra-serious,” she said.
“Her work reminds me of Holgate, the eighth member of the Group of Seven,” said artist Michael Ashley, whose work has shown at La Petite Mort gallery before.
“He was notorious for taking the Group of Seven landscapes but also putting nudes in them.”
Ashley even described the series as “amusingly kinky.”
As for Bruvels, she said she hopes people who view the exhibit can really appreciate the female form.
“If I had to make a single comment,” she said, “It would just be how awesome is it to have a naked lady on your wall and to be comfortable with that.”
