SECRET SOLITUDES – PAINTINGS BY SALLY CLARK

SECRET SOLITUDES – PAINTINGS BY SALLY CLARK
 

Opening Thursday October 16, 2025 7-9pm
https://sallyopening.eventbrite.ca

Meeting the Artist: Tuesday October 21, 2025 6-8pm
https://meetsally.eventbrite.ca

Exhibition: October 16 – November 6, 2025
Mon-Fri 10am-5pm or by appointment.

Lipont Gallery is delighted to present “SECRET SOLITUDES,” a new exhibition featuring paintings by established Vancouver-based artist, Sally Clark. The exhibition opens on October 16th, 2025, with a public reception from 7 PM to 9 PM.

The exhibition “SECRET SOLITUDES” presents a captivating body of work by artist, Sally Clark, offering an intimate yet expansive exploration of the contemporary human condition, filtered through the lens of ancient myth, art historical homage and the raw, untamed landscape of British Columbia and the Canadian North. Clark, an accomplished painter, playwright, and filmmaker brings a multi-layered, narrative sensibility to her canvases, developing her rich, vibrant colours through the meticulous, layered techniques of the Old Masters, where light is formed optically by passing through underpainting and overpainting.

A cosmic drama unfolds in her new paintings ‘Miss Universe and the Big Bang’ and ‘Miss Universe Chooses’ where a central female figure is depicted not as a passive ideal, but as an active creator of her own reality and solar system. This figure can be seen as a powerful contemporary analogue to mythic creation deities; highlighting a desire for agency amid universal chaos. The theme of forging one’s own path continues in ‘Les Demoiselles du Canada,’ which nods to Picasso’s revolutionary figures. Here, three women are locked in an “ancient dance,” an eternal inscription, while a fourth chooses to “unhook herself” to seek a “blank canvas,” powerfully illustrating the tension between tradition, fate, and radical self-determination.

Clark’s figurative paintings, born from the “present moment” of life drawing, transcend their immediate source material to become surreal dreamscapes. The artist’s aim is to capture moments of sudden, disruptive societal and personal shift—an “eternal present” where we feel disassociated from our past.

The exhibition title, “SECRET SOLITUDES,” finds its emotional anchor in the numerous works dedicated to the wilderness. Clark’s native British Columbia landscape is not merely a setting but a repository of quiet contemplation and mysterious energy. The works ‘Symphony of Trees,’ ‘Jewel in the Forest,’ and ‘The Silent Cacophony of the Forest’ celebrate the intricate patterns and profound, almost deafening, silence found in nature—the artist’s personal source of beauty and meditation.

Through “SECRET SOLITUDES,” Sally Clark invites the viewer into a compelling dialogue between past and present, myth and modernity, and the personal quest for presence within an ever-shifting reality. Her masterful technique and narrative depth create an unforgettable experience of contemporary figurative painting.

Exhibition Dates: October 16 – November 6, 2025
Hours: Monday – Friday, 10 AM – 5 PM, or by appointment. 
Address: Lipont Place, Room 218 (no elevator), 4211 No. 3 Road, Richmond, BC, V6X 2C3
Admission: Free
Parking: Free on the south side of the building only.
Transit: Aberdeen Station
Contact: www.lipontgallery.ca, 604-285-9975