Shannon Reynolds

Biography

Shannon Reynolds lives and works in downtown Kitchener.  She is a graduate of the University of Waterloo’s fine arts program and also holds an MA in English literature.  Her portraits are in private collections across North America.  Following her Master's degree she decided to put off academic scholarship for a while and instead signed a warehouse studio lease. The studio space, which previously had been the creative home to a succession of university art department faculty members, offered her the possibility of painting more regularly. She continued to hone her painting skills and produce the occasional portrait commission over the next few years, but it has only been since 2002 in the home studio of her own construction that she has truly occupied the role of an exhibiting painter.

Artist Statement

I am fascinated by portraiture as a record of individuals, as a social document of status denied or proffered, and as evidence of transactions between artist and model.   Increasingly, I am striving to broach the gap between private and public audiences with portrait series that move beyond documentation to both engage, and solicit the critical judgment of a general audience.

The roles we play either consciously or unwittingly are the subjects of my two concurrent painting series described below.  The fortunate among us choose the roles we play in society, but often we fall into roles constructed for us by the perceptions of others.

Dramatis Personae

This series of large full-length staged portraits plays up the artifice of portraiture by drawing an analogy to theatre: painter as director, subject as actor, viewer as audience.  The portraits emphasize the typically overlooked involvement of the subjects by requiring them to act their chosen roles and thereby become active collaborators.  The audience for portraits is often limited to those who know the subjects—only they can evaluate the likenesses.  But by depicting recognizable character types whose traits can be evaluated, the paintings invite the judgment of a wide audience.  Even an audience unfamiliar with the actors will be able to judge how well the characters succeed.  The paintings include only the figure and one or two symbolic props in a shallow, neutral space.  Because archetypal roles are shaped as much by textual reiteration as by repeated images, the actors in each painting contributed texts which had in some way shaped their own understanding of their roles.  These texts form a barely legible backdrop for the characters and become a literal subtext underwriting the roles. 

Suspect Profiles

In a culture of fear, everyone is suspicious, and everyone is suspect. Who do you suspect? Who suspects you?

My ongoing portrait series Suspect Profiles exploits our societal tendency to slot people into categories based upon physical appearance.   In these stark oil-on-panel paintings I pose neighbourhood volunteers against a measured backdrop to simulate police mug shots.  Set against a backdrop of suspicion, people seldom fail to look suspicious.  Confronted with a line-up of suspects, the viewers of the paintings are led by the familiar conventions of the context to choose the most dubious character, based on their own perceptions and preconceptions.    This series represents a departure from my more traditional portraits and is intended both as a social commentary and an attempt to engage a wider public audience than the typically private audience of portraiture.