Canadian artist Megan Jentsch uses mixed-media painting as a means to unveil the complexities of human emotions, behaviors and dynamics when experienced on an individual or collective scale. While for years Megan has been inclined towards a gestural and existential take on abstraction experimenting with varied color palettes, materials and formats, recently she has also embraced figuration as an avenue to explore the symbolism and expressive potential that lies beneath the human figure. In Jentsch’s hands, the two seemingly disparate artistic traditions, abstraction and figuration, blend into an instinctive yet thoughtful materialization of the chaotic harmony of textures, bold colors, and unexpected forms that bring to life the very essence of the human psyche.
Nowadays based in Vancouver, Jentsch grew up in Canada’s Okanagan Valley and afterward studied Interior Design at Florence’s Design Academy while parallelly diving each time deeper into her craft. From the outset, Megan has found inspiration in the legacy of Abstract Expressionism, which sought to reveal the artist’s authentic identity through an immediate application of color. In due time, Jentsch’s eclectic background and cultural influences resulted in a distinctive visual vocabulary characterized by overlapping layers of color gradations, textures and black signs that unfold from one composition to the other. Hence, the artist’s introspective process often involves working in series of multi-panel compositions constructed with acrylics, oil pastels, and aerosol paints, which allow her to alternate between bold and delicate traces. Alongside her go-to techniques, Megan’s experimental vein reflects in the incorporation of found objects, such as tissue paper or book clippings, and a wide array of supports ranging from MDF boards to printed fabrics and capriciously shaped canvases. In this cathartic journey, Megan has also made the paintings’ frame part of the composition and, on occasion, has even surpassed the boundaries of the canvas by intervening the adjacent walls with gestural brushstrokes. Together, these aspects lend the artist’s work a sculptural quality linked to the ongoing redefinition of the medium of painting and reveal her deep understanding of the interaction of space, light and color.
While still pursuing an intuitive exploration of contrasting hues and textures, in her recent paintings, Jentsch has started to explore how the human figure embodies the sometimes tumultuous and conflicting nature of the unconscious mind. Through this new body of work, featuring distorted hands placed against abstract backgrounds, Megan manifests her life experiences, even if challenging, and delves into the symbolism of a universal motif associated with emotion, spirituality and decision-making. Furthermore, as is hinted by Jentsch’s ongoing series of vibrantly colored hands, the ruminations and inner chatter of the mind ultimately take the form of a hand gesture, of a positive or negative action that bears ripple effects.
Megan Jentsch (b.1989) has participated in group and solo exhibitions in London (UK); Calgary, and Vancouver (CA). She has also conducted art residencies in A I R Artist Inn Residency, Ubud, Bali (2023); Pouch Cove Foundation, Newfoundland, CA (2022); and Re: Centre Art Residency, London, UK (2019-2020). Jentsch regularly receives commissions and her work forms part of the private collections of Air Canada, ATB Financial and Le Germaine Hotels.