Colette Laliberte @ Wynick/Tuck Gallery

“New Paintings” til Nov. 7

Size does matter, but not the way you think it does.Knowing little about Laliberte except for what I see in the paintings recently on display at Wynick/Tuck Gallery, I’m willing to guess that she is (or has become) the consummate editor, knowing when to flourish and when to hold back.  Able to be well balanced, but still dynamic.  She makes purple and orange look like the hot couple at the dance  (evidence is in the work above).  And she makes small not insignificant, but just right.

Sized between 8″x8″ to 12″x12″ Laliberte’s “New Paintings” are bucking a trend where bigger can fetch you more in a sale because customers erroneously believe that size matters.  I shudder to think how aggressive these works would be were they four times their current size.  They already gleam and sparkle like the polished jewels that they are.  She knows that anymore would be too much, that to catch the eye and work as “P A I N T I N G” painting need not be large.

Diminutive in size but not small, understated in colour but still brave, reserved in texture but not in pattern, Colette Laliberte’s “New Paintings” were borne from an artist who seems to have found her sweet spot.