Veronika Pausova

VERONIKA PAUSOVA
Born in Prague in 1987

Wading Sun
2021
Oil on canvas
190 x 169.9 cm

Purchase, Marie-Solanges Apollon Fund

Photo MMFA, Jean-François Brière

Veronika Pausova is a Canadian painter of Czech origin. She grew up in Montreal, upon relocating here with her family at the age of three. After completing her studies, she moved to New York and then Toronto. In January 2023, she returned to Montreal and has set her studio up here.

Pausova works in oils in a distinctive style that can at once evoke collage, illustration, drawing, and photography. Her paintings are full of familiar objects, plants and insects, as well as body parts that are often depicted life size.

Wading Sun is the artist’s first work to enter the MMFA’s collection. In this painting, a rhythmic succession of long schematic legs in high-heeled boots crosses the canvas from right to left. The vivid palette and play of textures on the work’s surface are quintessential elements of Pausova’s approach. So too is the hatching effect created by the legs and their shadows, the composition of which tells of her penchant for grid and network motifs. There are also hyperrealistic elements, in the form of knees and nail-polished toes, which have been a signature feature of her painting since her early work.