Nava Lubleski’s exhibition reviewed in today’s Globe & Mail
Nava Lubelski at p|m Gallery
Until Jan. 29, 1518 Dundas St. W., Toronto; www.pmgallery.ca
Everywhere I go, textile works tempt me to touch them. Nava Lubelski’s multimedia painting-embroidery hybrids at P/M Gallery are especially difficult to resist. Lubelski stains and rips open her canvases with abandon, then winds elaborate webs inside and around the peepholes. Pluck me, the works beg.
She further augments her vibrating concoctions with minute patches of intense needlework, in brilliant tones. The resulting tapestries remind me of tidal pools, of cool, grey-green seaweed gardens where spindly urchins and jellyfish lurk, of murky pits twitching with primordial intelligence.
Yes, I considered running my fat fingers along the taut threads, and yes, I wondered if I could get away with covertly adding a toy fish or three to Lubelski’s watery seascapes – but, you break it, you buy it.
By R.M. Vaughan, The Exhibitionist
