We are pleased to present Breathing Lessons, a solo exhibition by San Francisco Bay Area artist Thérèse Lahaie. The exhibit includes nine pieces from Lahaie's most recent Nocturne series. In these sculptures light is projected through glass onto slowly moving scrims, casting shadows that expand and contract invoking the fundamental body rhythms of heartbeat and breath. The unusual combination of sheet glass, steel, low-rpm motors, paper and fabric produces an effect similar to the rising and falling of the tides. Many of the pieces exude a subtly erotic quality.

Lahaie's work reconnects us to the elements of light, water and air. “My visual vocabulary, which has evolved from an earlier focus on navigation, integrates forms and properties from science, technology and the natural world. Now that the emphasis is on rhythm and breath, the 'navigation,' has become more internal. In this vocabulary the organic takes precedence over the technological and the technological endlessly mirrors and illuminates the human,” says Lahaie of the Nocturne pieces.

The artist adopted the series name from J.M. Whistler's eponymous paintings. Her use of planes of muted color is a response to his Nocturnes. The slow repetitive movements, shifting shadows and reflections in Lahaie's sculptures become a contemporary restatement of the poetic atmosphere of Whistler's dusk-time landscapes.

Thérèse Lahaie holds a B.A. in fine art and biology from the Emmanuel College in Boston and a B.F.A. in sculpture from the Massachusetts College of Art. Her kinetic sculpture was included in the highly praised 2003 exhibition The Invisible Thread at the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art in New York. The exhibition explored the links between Buddhist perspectives and contemporary art over the last 50 years. She has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and Canada, and has participated in many group exhibitions as well. Her work is included in public and private collections nationwide.