Gallery & Studio
An International Art Journal
- Byron Coleman

Among the earliest formalists were those artisans of ancient cultures—particularly the Egyptians, the Celts, and the Mayans—who created stylized symbols with a variety of forms, both cursive and geometric. Although such symbols were generally intended as manifestations of communal belief systems rather than expressions of individual creativity, they often provide a rich source of inspiration for contemporary artists.

Traces of many ancient cultures appear in the paintings of Carmen Labbé, seen recently in Soho NY. However, they are thoroughly transformed by the modern sensibility of this artist with a background in fashion design, theater, and literature, who has traveled extensively and assimilated a wide range of influences.  Labbé combines her interest in various cultures with an interest in the optical effects of light.

“I have always been fascinated by the transformation that occurs on a person, place or object by the mere effect of light,” Labbé has been quoted as stating. This fascination has led her to experiment with a variety of reflective materials which invest the surfaces of her mixed media paintings with luminous effects that enhance their spiritual suggestiveness.

The device is especially effective in a painting such as “Shaman Healer,” where the addition of gold metallic pigment makes the figure enveloped in a shimmering blue field appear to emanate beams of light. Even while the gold elements create the formal effect of a religious icon, the overall spirit of the image is more fluid in its thrust than representations of saints and other figures in Western religious icons tend to be. For Labbé invests her painting with a sense of primitive urgency more in keeping with the nature of shamanic mysticism—its shape shifting aspects, its belief in creatures and myths that morph to take various forms.
Ancient Egyptian motifs also provide rich sources of inspiration in paintings such as “Akhenaten: Law of One” in which the stylized symbol of an eye gloats above a pyramidal form within a broad blue border. Here, Labbé employs reflective materials and severe geometric format vocabulary to invest her composition with an impressive formal presence. By contrast, in “Keepers of the Elements,” she utilizes four stylized figures apparently derived from African tribal sculpture to create a powerful frontal composition.

Another painting by Labbé, “Mandala Swirl,” again verges on minimalism with its sharply geometric forms and subtly shimmering chromatic qualities. It should be noted that Labbé is an exceptionally astute colorist, as seen in her subtle use of saturated blue hues in paintings such as “Bleu Nuit” and “Window of a Shaman,” as well as in the more sharply differentiated color areas and bold forms in the fiery red and blue range in her acrylic painting “Polarity.”

In all of these works, different as they may be in their formal and chromatic components, the unifying element is the emphasis on light that invests the paintings of Carmen Labbé with their luminous persuasiveness.