Statement

Mylène Roy’s painting is a dialogue with time. It develops slowly and adapts to the fluidity and unpredictability of the paint itself. The circle and its corollaries ― ellipses, rings, arcs ― are central to the artist’s work. Both in small and large scale works, the circle generates moving traces that saturate the space. The resulting images are organic and geographical at the same time. They make observers doubt what they are seeing.

Roy works mainly through the principles of addition and dilution. She first wets the surface with acrylic and water, sometimes taking even greater risks with unorthodox substances such as oil and soap. In spreading the medium on a canvas laid flat, the artist lets the acrylic do its works by leaving it to crystallize so that effects emerge, or Roy can intervene by wiping off the excess. The result is an interplay of transparency where the paint draws on what was there before, revealing patterns, pigments and blisters. Despite the careful application of the paint and the precision of the process, the accumulation of colour and accidental effects are what guide the work. This method is risky, but unique; it reflects the artist’s wishes and regrets.

Once exhibited, Roy’s works evoke arial views, territories or cellular bodies. But she does not want to lead the eye to any direct representation and instead seeks disorientation and crossover between the infinitely small and the enormous. This effect is sometimes marked by hanging in pairs, where surfaces are in dialogue and add to the confusion of scale. This confusion reminds us that sometimes, we do not need to know exactly where we are.

Text from Catherine Melançon