Slapchartreuse (2013) by Vancouver artist Allyson Clay from the MacLaren’s Permanent Collection is a riotously-coloured painting exploring action-oriented descriptions of abstract works. Clay employs phrases from textbooks—most notably Roald Nasgaard’s Abstract Painting in Canada—to demonstrate how masculinist language limits our understanding of art history as a whole.
Allyson Clay received her BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, and a MFA from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Clay has exhibited throughout Canada and internationally, with solo exhibitions at Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff; Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria; Dunlop Gallery, Regina; and Numark Gallery, Washington DC. Her work is represented in the permanent collections of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver; the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto; and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Clay lives in Vancouver and teaches at the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University.
