Rebecca Munce

Rebecca Munce is an artist who explores the intersection of spiritual fantasy and the everyday psyche. Through developing her own colour palettes as a system for visually describing new worlds, Munce is interested in the tension between building alternative realities where earthly laws collide and fall apart. Using layers of colours applied to an aluminium support, the artist traces lines in still-wet oil paint, a reductive drawing technique that Munce has been rigorously exploring for several years.

Each new work continues to build on these new universes that Munce has created, which further develops complex mythologies between humans and mythical creatures. The human archetypes she uses, such as the soldier or the explorer, are confronted with their own mortality in the face of the divine entities they encounter, reflecting a universal resonance with existential questions. Floral borders, iron fences and stone arenas function as compositional tools to contain these narratives, similar to protective magic circles or playgrounds. The stones and pebbles that link the various events become recurring motifs, evoking the potential for the break-up or reorganisation of an earlier structure. By continually evolving according to their own fantastical logic, these celestial spaces offer an engaging exploration of their own human condition.

Rebecca Munce lives and works in Montreal. She holds a BFA from York University and an MFA from Concordia University. She recently completed a one-year mentorship with the Canopy Program, where she was selected to create work alongside a small cohort of ten artists. Regarding her exhibition history, Munce's work has been shown in various galleries in Canada, the United States, Italy and Japan. Her works have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at Maison de la Culture NDG (2024), McBride Contemporain (Montreal, 2024), the Canopy Studio (New York, 2024), DRAC art center in Drummondville (2022), Spring/Break (New York, 2021), Centre Clark (Montreal, 2021), Stewart Hall Gallery (Montreal, 2019), FOFA Gallery (Montreal, 2018) and Momozono Gallery (Tokyo, 2018).  Notable published interviews and reviews include Peggy (2023), Esse arts+opinions (2022), and ArtMaze (2021, 2020). Artworks by Rebecca Munce can be found in the collections of the City of Laval, Scotiabank, the Royal Bank of Canada, and the Desjardins Collection.