Koop's newest paintings offer wry considerations of technological doomerism. She debuts her “AI Ghost Trees,” in which barren tree trunks form the suggestive letters “AI” as if nature itself were warning us of a conspiracy. In her newest moon paintings, Koop seems to be identifying earth’s satellite as the genesis for the circle-centricity of so much modern art. It floats in rippling skies suggesting the unseen electronic currents of a theremin. The artist recently began playing the instrument, which allows her to tap into the intuitive and otherworldly energies that also guide her mark-making.

Koop’s approach to technology embraces double-edged humor and a broader, longer view. It’s unsettling to see a signifier for artificial intelligence in tree trunks, to try to find linguistic configurations in pond reeds and electronic patterns in the night skies. Yet as technology increasingly consumes our daily lives, it becomes impossible to escape its shadow in even the most remote locales.

The exhibition title reflects the artist’s attitude towards technological progress in the face of environmental collapse. Magnetic Field refers to the north-pointing compass that the artist painted on her cabin floor in Riding Mountain. This act recalls Koop’s earliest paintings, made on plywood that the artist salvaged and traded for artworks before she could afford canvases and stretchers of her own. Painting gains meaning not via its technological utility, but for its very presence and persistence as a primordial object of communication. Koop feels out her direction with her own internal guide, creating luminous fields that exist outside of language— be it early script or large language models. Her canvases reconnect us with the mysteries of the natural universe, which will persist long after we and our gadgets are gone.

Wanda Koop (b. 1951, Vancouver, Canada) is a renowned painter. She has exhibited across Canada and  the U.S. as well as in Asia, Europe, and South America. In 2019, The Dallas Museum of Art presented  "Concentrations 62: Dreamline," Koop's first major solo museum exhibition in the United States. The  National Gallery of Canada mounted a major survey of her work in 2011. Koop has been the recipient of  numerous awards, honorary doctorates, and Canadian medals of honor, including the nation’s highest  civilian honor, the Order of Canada, in 2006. Her life and work have been the subject of several  documentary films. In 1998 she founded Art City, a storefront art centre that brings together  contemporary visual artists and inner-city youth to explore the creative process. Koop's work is included  in numerous public collections including Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada; Buffalo AKG Art  Museum, Buffalo, NY; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, Montréal,  Canada; The Shanghai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China; Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Canada,  and many others.