Mary Pratt

Mary Pratt Synopsis

"The light in Pratt's paintings seems sentient, a living thing, a pulsation or emission, imbuing the paintings with an erotic and almost mystical desire." — Canadian Art Following a stunningly successful national touring exhibition and a sold-out hardcover edition of the accompanying book, Mary Pratt is available once again in this elegant paperback edition. Says the Globe and Mail, Mary Pratt's "gorgeous, brutal vision of the world is the best revenge against anyone who ever sought to define her." There's something deeply resonant about Pratt's painting for contemporary audiences — particularly for those that are food obsessed. The dark light of a jelly jar, the slippery weight of filleted cod, the dark drippings of a bloody roast, the wet yellow yolk of a cracked egg. Pratt takes these seemingly mundane subjects and fills them with light, giving them a monumental quality, making them seem luminous, signifiant, memorable. For many, they have become seared into memory, iconic in the best sense of the word. Mary Pratt, a career retrospective, features five major essays by columnist and art critic Sarah Milroy, Catharine Mastin of the Art Gallery of Windsor, Mireille Eagan and Caroline Stone of The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery, Sarah Fillmore of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, and art critic and curator Ray Cronin as well as 75 colour reproductions of Pratt's most renowned work, including Eggs in an Egg Crate, Salmon on Saran, Eviscerated Chickens, and Cod Fillets on Tin Foil.