Monique Moreira's Pop-Inspired Packaging Paintings at Galerie Schirman & de Beaucé

Monique Moreira's third exhibition at Galerie Schirman & de Beaucé in Paris, titled '2 en 1', runs from November 22, 2011 to January 14, 2012. The artist continues her long-standing practice of painting consumer packaging—brands like Knorr bouillon, Fixo Nop adhesive tabs, Speculoos biscuits, Freedent gum, and raspberry Carambars. She collects these cardboard and cellophane wrappers in a box until they are painted onto canvas with extreme simplicity and attention, then carefully folded around a stretcher as if wrapping it. The resulting works flirt with three-dimensionality: a Carambar painting is hinged to reveal the stretcher's pink-painted back; a Speculoos piece has missing sections as if meticulously cut; a Dextro Energy box is emptied of its contents, allowing air to pass through. The canvases glow with bright colors and resemble pinned rare butterflies. While evoking pop art, Marcel Duchamp, and Roland Barthes, Moreira offers a personal, obstinate, and poetic interpretation.