Melanie Authier’s abstract paintings are known for enticing the viewer into an imaginary, sublime world of swirling colours and joyous emotion. But as of late, Authier has also been experimenting with her palette, creating paintings of black and white.

(Above, Ground Seeker, Melanie Authier, 2015, courtesy of Georgia Scherman Projects)

Some of them will be unveiled in her nationally touring exhibition Contrarieties & Counterpoints, will be at the Ottawa Art Gallery from Oct. 7 until Jan. 1, 2017. There is a vernissage on Oct. 6 at 6 p.m.

“My paintings bring visual contradictions together into one imaginary space,” explains Authier. “Each painting presents a brimming jostle of pictorial oppositions.”

Authier is definitely an Ottawa painter on the rise. The National Gallery has started collecting work from this University of Ottawa instructor. Her current touring exhibition, which began this past summer at Thames Gallery in Chatham-Kent, is organized by one of the most towering figures in Canadian art, Winnipeg-based critic and curator Robert Enright.