Many of us have a Rolodex of images that we have come across that are emblazoned into our memory. These images are important scenes from our everyday life or even powerful images that call out to us from the ether of our cellular devices. We may not remember even whether one is a photograph we have seen or an impression that has come from life itself. Either way, their power and their aura render them larger than themselves. We return to them often because they are images—possibly thousands of images—that please us. They speak to us in a way we may not even be able to articulate. The selected works that Galerie Youn has exhibited at Art Busan —a leading premium art fair in Korea—are a selection of Janisse-Barlow's work from her series 'Shell Games' which explores her rolodex of images that come from everyday life around her. 

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“I have a difficult time explaining why these images are the images,” Janisse-Barlow says while discussing the series. “There is a vibration to them—an atmosphere. They all strangely resonate together in my mind along some continuum of colour, shape, sensation, tone, theme. I like that the theme is slippery. That slippage is part of what draws me to the urgency to create some analog for them.”

 

The paintings that comprise Shell Games exude a presence, even if that presence is flawed; they ex- amine the plurality and reproducibility of images as they pass effortlessly and instantaneously through our experiences, our devices and our minds. Janisse-Barlow explores what happens if she stops that process and uses the slower medium of painting to reinvigorate the image, in effect restoring these impressions to the transient and liminal aura of the authentic. This selection of work was well received at Art Busan, finding its way into the homes of collectors. This is Janisse-Barlow's second international fair, and her debut in South Korea. Janisse-Barlow travelled to Busan to be a part of the fair.