Absence et présence is an exhibition of recent paintings by Kakim Goh and Verona Sorensen. Drawing on the concepts of “absence and presence”, the artists reflect on the dance of life and death, tackling form and formlessness, overlapping the boundaries between abstraction and figuration and articulating memory and experience.

Verona Sorensen was born in Montreal to a Filipino nurse and a West Coast Nordic painter. Her earlier years were spent between the Eastern Townships and Mexico. After successfully completing a BFA at Concordia University with a specialization in Theatre Performance, Verona embarked on her painting career when she was invited to apprentice with the ‘Dormice’ art collective in Florence, Italy. After 2 years of training in Italy, she moved to Ajijic, Mexico to study encaustic painting.

Verona’s works can be found in the major corporate collections of Loto-Quebec, Bankers Hall and Jameson Development Corp. and is a part of important private collections in Canada, Europe, Mexico and the United States. After her father passed away, she embarked on a journey to India and Philippines, in the hopes of coming to terms with her grief and the absence of the presence of her father.

Her paintings are inspired by material and surfaces such as weathered doors and walls that serve as testimony to the passing of time. Imprinted by the beauty of experience, these surfaces parallel the depth and layers of the human existence. Her technique consists of building multiple layers of heavily textured oil paint mixed with encaustic wax and sand onto canvas or wood panel then scraping away through the thick coats in order to reveal the rich surfaces and colors below. Verona wants to reveal the beauty lingering below surfaces. Her paintings communicate strength and vulnerability. Like a lotus flower emerging from the mud, her works act as analogies of the human condition: the hardships and triumphs, the darkness and luminosity.

Kakim Goh is a Singaporean-born Montreal-based visual and performance artist working primarily in painting and drawing. Born into a family of artists, Kakim’s father was a poet, doctor and nightclub owner whose wanderlust spread Kakim’s youth across Singapore, Malaysia, Vancouver and Cowhead, Newfoundland. At the age of 19, Kakim left Vancouver for Mexico where he studied oil painting, drawing and printmaking processes for 5 years in the artist colony of San Miguel de Allende, in Mexico. Upon his return to Canada, he complemented his training with a BFA
(Major in Painting and Drawing with distinction) from Concordia University in Montreal. His Artworks can be found in private collections in Canada, the United States, Singapore, Mexico, and Chile.

Globalization is a process of expanding hybridization. Within the phenomenon of cultural globalization, previously held notions of biological, racial, linguistic and theological purity are being challenged by the mishmash cross-cultural exchanges of love, lust, values and commodities. In this struggle to adapt to a world that is constantly in flux are we truly present ?

You are warmly invited to attend this Rendez-vous which will certainly be rich in exchanges and emotions!