Peekaboo at Corkin Shopland Gallery, Toronto In a provocative and playful new series of paintings, Natalie Munk presents large scale, gestural works using her signature poured acrylic on canvas. These semi-abstract 'portraits' take up a theme reminiscent of Paris and the Folies Bergères – dancing girls kicking up their frilly skirts. Munk′s paintings, however, with their expressionistic, gestural style and uninhibited, erotic freedom, have clearly been filtered through the North American 20th century. A close relationship is made between the artist′s process – the necessarily quick but studied motion needed to drip her paint – and the exuberance of her subject matter. With an economy of means, Munk makes a link between the 'exposed' nature of her performers and of herself as artist, and seems to delight in her freedom of expression. As the artist has stated, these festive and erotic paintings focus on sex symbols, showing us how they are also symbols of female liberation, domination and expression. View Paintings Toronto Star Article (pdf, 1.9mb) Toronto Star Article Online Mass Art Guide Review (pdf, 900k)