Richmond BC, Canada #richmondartgallerybc
In Flight is from Pnina Granirer’s West Coast series, where she draws our attention to the native fauna of British Columbia and its wilderness. In Flight features three Canada geese in mid-flight. Granirer is fascinated by these iconic birds, which she associates with freedom. Whereas others may see them as pesky intruders, the artist finds inspiration in them: “In the air they’re wonderful…When they’re flying together, they become a squadron of power and freedom.”
Dominating the foreground is a detailed depiction of the Canadian bird in mid-flight–with its strong, graceful neck, its eye and instantly recognizable white cheek patch, and sharp beak. Its wings are shown flapped downward, displaying an intricate and precise representation of its feathers. To achieve this level of exactness, she collected moulted goose feathers from Spanish Banks in Vancouver and brought them to Atelier Clot, Paris’s oldest lithography workshop, where she printed the feathers directly onto a lithograph stone.
Granirer is interested in dichotomies, in this case, presenting realistic elements alongside abstraction. Present in this work are elements often observed in Granirer’s works: sinuous silhouettes, diaphanous shapes, and delicate patterning–resembling gauze-like forms layered over gradated colours. In the artist’s oeuvre spanning over sixty years, Granirer has developed her own visual language to evoke lightness, harmonious flow, and movement.
Born in Romania, Granirer moved to Canada in 1965 and settled in Vancouver. She studied Fine Art at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem, and has travelled and worked extensively in Europe, Japan, and Mexico. Granirer’s work is reflective of her personal experiences while drawing on cultural and historical iconography and imagery. Early in her career, Granirer concentrated on printmaking, creating a large inventory of works in a variety of print media. In 1998, the Richmond Art Gallery hosted a forty-year retrospective of her work, with the exhibition Celebrating a Life’s Work.
– Maria Filipina Palad
Collection Close-up
Collection Close-up is an ongoing initiative where we highlight a work from the Permanent Collection, which has a formal or thematic link to the featured exhibitions. In Flight (1980) is one of several prints by Pnina Granirer in the Collection.
