Kim Dorland @ Parisian Laundry

Maybe this ain’t your thing, but if it is, Kim Dorland has a show going at Parisian Laundry in St-Henri, Montreal until April 19th. With a distinct style that’s at once feminine and aggressive, Dorland makes portraits into ghastly messes and skate parks into surreal suburban icons.

Dorland seems compelled to tear apart the neat façade of our quaint Canadian existence, or least to give it a heck of makeover. The faces of her young women are mangled pots of angst stew, and yet through the muddy brushwork a humanity can be perceived (or maybe only imagined). If Dorland’s overall approach shows an apparent cool distance from her subjects, the pink auras that shadow the beings she paints betray an empathy that’s undeniable.

Go check it out.