Co.Lab Gallery presents,
DISCREPANCIES
ERIN SZTURM
August 12- Sept 10, 2026
Art Opening Aug 14th, 6-10pm
6PM-7PM: Sensory & Accessible time to meet with the artist.
Erin Szturm's work transforms fragments of everyday life into richly imagined worlds; where observation becomes mythology. Rooted in feminist and environmental perspectives, Szturm's paintings explore themes of displacement, solastalgia, and the tension between human intervention and the natural world. Humour and discomfort coexist throughout her compositions, uncertainty is welcomed.
“Wielding a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree with a specialization in painting and drawing from the University of Ottawa, I consider myself a fine artist, researcher, and educator. In my debut solo exhibition, pigment and walnut oil on unprepared wood motion to the concurrent, complex ongoing issues caused by the varied interpretations and misevaluations of morality, responsibility, and respect. Land is thrust upon the viewer and just as quickly taken. Raw palms obstruct the plane of view. Spirited creatures and spiritless objects fragment. Everything is fighting for attention and, despite the best intentions, not enough is being done between the framing.”
Biography
Specializing in painting and drawing throughout receiving their BFA at the University of Ottawa, Erin Szturm depicts narratives of solastalgia on ephemeral surfaces using frenetically-applied oils. They draw parallels between conversations of contemporary feminist, social, and environmental issues using encroaching urban | domestic imagery. These visual and contextual intersections emerge as Erin herself was uprooted from Northern Ontario and her hometown of Thunder Bay to the political-cultural hub that is Ottawa.
She seeks someplace quiet to introspect and hopes viewers find her practice as a waypoint in their own voyage towards persistent revelations - one complete with perils, euphorias, delays, and abnormal interventions.
@ERMAYBE
