Sunday, October 15, 2023

A Day at the Paintings


I thought I'd go down to Catriona's, to see Ron's show. I knew if I went I should see the show at Wil Abale's around the corner, and whatever else is in the area. Monte has an opening. Artspeak still has its summer show up, but Or opened its fall show the night before, so that's four shows. Almost too much.

Ron's show is largely black paintings (text "in" flat finish, "framed" by gloss). The texts are from the American reactionary "right" and their source pictures can be taken away in a limited edition newsprint magazine, or witnessed as a ceiling-high grid on the gallery wall. The grid pictures are easy to photograph, but you have to tilt your phone just right to capture the paintings in full.

Francesca and Khan were there, so we left as a mob for Wil's, what turned out to be the last day of Lise Lemieux's paintings. Wil came out to give us a quick and thoughtful presentation of Lise's work.

From there, we walked west on Hastings, stopping at 881 for a show of Hank Bull's painted boxes, as photographed with very long exposures by Robert Keziere, who at 86 is still taking pictures. But these are Hank's artworks, not Robert's, and as such Hank is responsible for the question: What's to be gained from presenting his painted sculptures as photographic models, apart from entertaining the question? 

Jonathan Syme's's paintings at Monte Clark's were a joy. Such daring use of colour, with many kinds of painting going on in each of them.

A varied day of painting, completed by the KWÍKWI exhibition at Or, where the paintings are portraits and the frames depart from their edges to suggest masks, but also work in concert with what those faces are and are not saying. This is Jenn Jackson's first show as director-curator of Or and she has done her part to make this exhibition a memorable one.



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