MARY SHANNON WILL dot.dot.dot. investigates the artist’s use of the dot, line and grid to make drawings and paintings that explore chance colour combinations and non-repeating patterns within rule-based systems. In the mid-1980s, Shannon Will started to make up rules to guide her art-making process—for example she might use the letters from the name of a place or friend to select her paint colours and determine the order in which she laid them down. In this way, fundamental colour theories, formal elements and rational structures were playfully reconfigured by chance to produce surprising vibrant abstractions of endless variety. This exhibition includes 26 colourful abstract paintings, drawings, digital prints and mixed media works on paper produced by the artist between 1987 and 2017. Together they provide an intimate glimpse into Mary Shannon Will’s life and work; bright gems oscillating with concentrated energy drawn from the artist’s experience of the world. Curated by Diana Sherlock for the Alberta Society of Artists
