Developed in parallel to the works for her two solo exhibitions, Who Owns the Moon at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Objects of Interest at Night Gallery (Los Angeles), these paintings strike a deeply personal chord, reflecting on the artist’s family history, her parents’ and grandparents’ expulsion from Zaporizhzhia, and the sense of history repeated as Ukrainians once again suffer the indignities of war and displacement.

As with Koop’s iconic moon paintings, in which the lunar disc becomes a beacon of our civilization’s common cause, these works imbue ordinary flowers with a cosmic resonance symbolic of hope and harmony. At once still-lives and ethereal constellations, Koop’s vibrant windows of subtly shifting colour frame as a floating garden the fragile cycle of life.

The exhibition is organized by TrépanierBaer in collaboration with Blouin | Division, Toronto. This is Evan Penny’s first solo exhibition of new work in Toronto since his exhibition at the Power Plant in 2002. Marsyas and the Venetian Mirror will feature thirty-six works, many of them new and not seen before.

“The act of making new work suggests that one must leave what one has previously done to move to something new. In fact, that has not been my experience. Rather, I might find the new by going back into my history, which really means going back into myself, and pulling those threads that allow me to move forward.” —Evan Penny.

From the Marsyas cycle of work presented at the Biennale di Venezia in 2017 through to Penny’s latest gold-plated bronze body forms, AI generated works, and recent photographs, the exhibition will present works by one of the world’s preeminent sculptors, Evan Penny, and his on-going investigation of the human body and how we, the viewer, relate to it.

“Growing up as a mixed-race child in Canada, I yearned for someone to see beyond my physical appearance and into my inner being. I was seeking refuge from the vulnerabilities I felt. In my current work, I transform bodies—mine and others—into emotional landscapes, challenging the racial boundaries and physical limitations of our time. Self-portraits and silhouettes facing the Atlantic in West Africa or the United States, shimmer with black crystals or pink sequins. These images simultaneously protect us from historical burdens while celebrating the bonds forged through generations of struggle.

My practice builds upon traditional cultural crafts such as quilting, beading, and woven loincloths. It pays homage to the complex challenge of tracing ancestral heritage for those whose roots and identities were erased during the transatlantic slave trade. This artistic process weaves an invisible bond, uniting individuals whose experiences are intertwined with colonialism’s enduring legacy. Through this work, I aim to create a visual language that bridges personal identity, collective memory, and cultural resilience in the face of historical adversity.” —Émilie Régnier