Erica Mendritzki, "Sinon, l’hiver / Snowed In and Felt Up", La Maison des artistes visuels francophones, Saint-Boniface, Man., January 14 to February 20, 2016

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Erica Mendritzki, "Model Model", 2013, oil on wood panel, 20" x 16"

Erica Mendritzki, "Model Model", 2013, oil on wood panel, 20" x 16"

Erica Mendritzki’s recent paintings describe an abject version of winter. With their scrubby brushwork and palette of dingy whites and greys, they are reminiscent of the muck we trudge through and the mounds of dirt and snow that calcify on Winnipeg sidewalks. Once winter has slipped the sleeves of its pristine costume, it emerges as a wearisome and soul-polluting mess. 

Mendritzki is having a busy year. She teaches at the University of Manitoba, and is currently showing work in three galleries – two in Manitoba and one in Toronto.

This show’s essay, written by co-curator Kristiane Church, describes how the artist uses wintry visuals and sensations, like frozen limbs and treacherous roads, to think about the body, female representation, and navigating male-dominated art history. 

Several of the paintings contain body parts. Model Model is a delicate rendering of a torso turned clothes hanger, while the arms in Feely Touchy convey a beguiling mix of humour and anger. Calling to mind those weirdly gelatinous stretchy hand toys, they describe the female body as plaything, ultra compliant. 

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Erica Mendritzki, "New Contract", 2015

Erica Mendritzki, "New Contract", 2015, oil on wood panel, 20" x 16"

Mendritzki’s paintings are restless. Their erasures and effacements are evidence of an agitated cognitive pacing. In New Contract, letters shake with emotion: “Let me talk to you man to man.” A Henry Moore sculpture, Reclining Nude, floats in the centre of the nerve-wracked space. Mendritzki’s canvases seem filled with negotiations and re-negotiations. What else is there to do, when snowed in, but think? 

Sinon, l’hiver also contains found-object sculptures. Placed around the floor, they are meant to mimic things forgotten under snow. As viewers must be careful where they step, the gallery is also a minefield – objects have startling potency once their significance sinks in. For me, they brought up sensitive subjects, and made me think about how difficult it is to navigate the contemporary art world, let alone art history. A blackened doll’s leg could be innocuous; what parent hasn’t found a forgotten toy in the yard once the snow melts? Or, and this could be my particular sensitivity talking, it might represent a neglected and frostbitten child (collateral damage of a successful art career?). The row of baby boots is cute, but when translated via their knock-off brand name they read as a line of disgruntled verse: “Ug Ug Ug Ug Ug Ug.”

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Erica Mendritzki, "Feely touchy", 2014

Erica Mendritzki, "Feely touchy", 2014, oil on board, 18” x 14”

Thankfully, there’s no clichéd womanly wisdom here, rather an admittance of a shaky and unsettled position. Be careful not to step on the pair of mannequin hands. They hold a giant peanut, a monument to narratives women artists know too well: “Will work for peanuts,” or “Oh, yes, darling – let me hold your nuts,” or “She hasn’t come out of her shell,” or “This whole situation is totally nuts. Crazier than the weather.”