Shawna McLeod’s paintings are both full and empty. They represent messy chambers and mounds of objects. The human figure absent from these paintings is perceptible through the objects she leaves behind. McLeod’s works have an air of Vanities , like these popular Dutch paintings in the 16th and 17th centuries which evoke the brevity of existence and represent the inevitable absence of the individuals who occupy the spaces depicted. The objects painted by McLeod are intimate to him and reflect his habit of collecting, elaborating and repeating himself both in his artistic practice and in his personal life.
McLeod expresses an interest in isolated places, for the artist’s studio in particular and for a certain sentimentalism which arose around banal interior objects. The abstraction of space and the use of the aréographe imprint a little magic on the works of the artist, representing objects scattered as if by magic, which float on compositions in cloud. Shawna McLeod holds a Master of Fine Arts from Concordia University obtained in 2008; she has exhibited in various places in Canada and completed a residency at the Apex Art Center in New York in 2009. Many of her works are part of the Canada Council Art Bank.