Megan Klak
Glow
The Works Community Canvas YMCA Initiative At Don Wheaton YMCA
10211 - 102 Ave, Main floor
ARTIST STATEMENT
Over the past few years, I have been preoccupied with the idea that one person can never truly understand another – even within the closest relationships. I seek to depict figures with interior worlds that are permanently inaccessible to the viewer. Lit up by glowing devices, my figures are surrounded by textured darkness, focused on their screens. In the absence of a specific narrative, I hope viewers project their own stories and emotions onto my images. I strive to create paintings that leave space between the painted figures and the viewer – a space for reaction, connection, and emotion.
ARTIST BIO
Megan Klak is an Edmonton-based artist, writer, and arts educator. She holds a BA in Art and Design from the University of Alberta and is graduating this fall with a diploma in Arts and Cultural Management from MacEwan University. Her practice deals with connection and disconnection, loneliness, and the relationships between people and the interior and exterior worlds they build for themselves. Her work has been shown at Harcourt House and the Nina Haggerty Centre, and her writing has been published in SNAPline 2020.3 and Galleries West magazine. She is the recipient of a 2022 Gold Alberta Magazine Award for her Galleries West article on arts mentorship, “Mentorship as Social Sculpture.” Currently, Megan is working as the Visual Arts Education Programmer at Gallery@501 in Sherwood Park.