For more than a year, we have been waiting behind masks. Masks obscure our faces but are also impressions of them. This new collection of works by Montreal-born, Boston-based artist Liette Marcil -- which she has been waiting to show throughout the Covid Crisis -- brings her beaux-métier background as a ceramicist into new heights with mixed-media masks and acrylics on canvas. The works on canvas are impressions of the masks; they serve to both obstruct and reveal the figures of her imagination with bold use of geometric shapes.

J'Attends expands on the ability to build a bridge between the seen and unseen world, with compositions that depict the images and spirits that emerge from Marcil’s interactions with these multi-dimensional figures. Intricate clay masks and veiled acrylic paintings are the medium through which these spirits take shape. Portraits of the otherwise invisible or unseen, each of these works emanate their own personality, with magic, intrigue, and curiosity; and while mute, they seemingly connect telepathically, engaging viewers through their own interpretations and experiences, asking them how they perceive the world. Through this unspoken communication, this body of work emanates energy, and deepens the viewers’ expressions of the spiritual. As you encounter and engage with each of these beings, consider the possibility that they sought expression and presence through Marcil, breaking through with their premonitions before the world became accustomed to wearing masks as daily routine, and a part of our reality. A conduit for these spiritual voices, Marcil’s subconscious creations offer a symbolic alternative to what has become the prevailing definition of “mask,” instead focusing on the ideas of consciousness and identity, and how that relationship has formed over time to readdress our interpretation of our shared reality, both seen and unseen.