Canadian artist Josee Guitard paints urban landscapes inspired by modern architectural concepts. Guitard has worked in the construction industry in various capacities throughout her professional career, which sparked her fascination with the angular grid-like morphology of large cities. To her, art is akin to erecting a building. Using a palette knife as a tool, she forges textures and reliefs with acrylic paint, gloss and matte mediums, and pumice stone. Brick by brick, layer by layer, dynamic cityscapes emerge; conquering the space with jutting concrete silhouettes, vigorously propelled towards the skies. With a high-contrast palette dominated by black, white, and red tones, Guitard’s metropolises have the eerie quality of an empty Gotham. The streets are vacant and the structures hollow. Yet, there is a life force that animates the entire composition, as if incarnating a collective spirit, which is very much palpable at first glance. Her cityscapes are meant to embody the quintessential contemporary city, one which we can all relate to and make our own.