A liminal space is a place or state characterized by being transitional, intermediate, or in-between. Cities are full of liminal spaces, both interior and exterior, and although they are not considered to have a defined use or function, the shifting effects of light, shadow and reflection experienced inside and outside these architectural and urban spaces, contribute to our impressions of a City.

Gillian Richards focuses on transitional spaces and functional architecture located in urban areas around her studio. While these spaces are often overlooked, Richards treats them with a considered, even sculptural eye, drawing out a sense of intimacy and human presence. The use of shadow and gradation of light, combined with her expressive and bold technique, present these utilitarian buildings and objects in a way that highlights their connection to modernism through a reading of truth and beauty in functional form, elevating them to subjects worth aesthetic consideration. Emilie Fantuz’s most recent body of work engages with the multi-layered and time-based effects of light experienced in the entry threshold of her home-studio space. An earlier series combined reflections and transparency into paintings that capture the multiple impressions of being both inside and outside buildings and urban spaces, with each part readable as a separate, shifting experience. This new series merges multiple viewpoints into an integrated reading of form, light and time. In doing so, Fantuz collapses these liminal spaces into paintings that express both visual phenomenon and the psychological state of the artist.

Richards and Fantuz share the representation and effects of light as a focus in their paintings; for Richards, to delineate a space or form, and for Fantuz, to dissolve and collapse a space. Richards defines and represents these exterior spaces through a reading of the underlying sculptural form and order in these prosaic places; Fantuz merges the layered effects of inside and outside, reflection and object, into a singular visual expression. Through their distinct yet complimentary approaches, these artists express the concept of Liminal Space in ways that feel authentic to lived experience within the modern urban environment.

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Image:
Emilie Fantuz
Everything in Between, 2025
48 x 48 in.
Oil on Canvas
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