The Artist: Eva Diener

The Lowdown: Diener's seething neo-expressionist canvases evoke ideas of forced migration, mass graves, and trench warfare. Observing the human condition as inseparable from the natural environment, the local painter has also produced three loosely rendered portraits of fish at a scale that leaves you eye-to-eye with the creatures.

Coordinates: Eva Diener: New Paintings is on until October 2 at the Evergreen Cultural Centre (1205 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam).

Process-oriented: Diener appreciates art that engages the body, and her process reflects this philosophical approach. A short video at the front of the gallery reveals her active painting technique, as Diener seems to dance in front of the large canvases in her studio. This intensity of engagement is reinforced in the subject matter dealt with by the artist in series with titles such as "Toxics", "fields of ashes", and "Global Village". Vibrant colour characterizes the large acrylic works, whose streaks of white, grey, red, blue, yellow, and green give form to anonymous, even ghostlike, figures rising out of the dark ground as if caught between heaven and hell. The emphasis on vertical movement brings to mind both Diener's energetic gestures and the desire for transcendence of pain and suffering. Accompanying the ambitious acrylics is a series of four 8" x 10" pencil drawings created while the artist was without a studio.

What it all means: "I don't like anything too premeditated, and I'm not very interested in illustrative work," says Diener in an interview at the centre. "It is really about vulnerability and the experience here and now in front of the painting."