Celia Lees: LOVE LANGUAGE

LOVE LANGUAGE was a solo exhibition of new paintings by Celia Lees, an abstract painter based in Toronto, and an investigation of her own love language. Contemporary dating tends to sort people into a ready-made taxonomy, acts of service for some and words of affirmation for others, but Lees found that hers was transient and did not fit within any system.

Across fourteen works, all made in 2024, Lees depicts a relationship stage, a word or a feeling of love. Some take apart a single, seemingly innocuous phrase exchanged with a lover, and others grieve relationships that ended; titles such as The decision was mutual, Wait, what? and It's fine I'm fine Everything's fine read like lines from a diary. She paints intuitively and at a large scale, using the motion of her body to set the composition. In some canvases the marks are confident and energetic; in others she lets diluted inks run and allows gravity to shape the picture.

At the center of the show was AT LONG LAST, her largest work to date: a painting 10 feet high and 24 feet wide (120 x 288 inches) that filled a wall of the gallery with the open, expansive joy of finding the right love. The exhibition ran alongside Jimi Gleason: Liquid Color, and the two shows shared an opening reception on March 7, 2024.