Macdonald Stewart Art Centre showcases spring shows
Macdonald Stewart Art Centre is currently showcasing three exhibits, on display from May 3 to July 13th. Toronto-based artist Robert Hengeveld’s exhibit, “promised lands,” occupies the entire main floor of the gallery.
Hengeveld, who was the artist in residence at the University of Guelph’s School of Environmental Sciences from 2011 to 2014, incorporates technology in his arts practice, highlighting connections between art and science.
“promised lands” features large-scale kinetic sculptures; upon entering, viewers are confronted with a large green roller-coaster. A plastic coyote loops around the track, endlessly chasing a stuffed rabbit, forming a whimsical representation of the natural order of predator and prey. Hengeveld’s landscapes are recreated with movement and mechanical elements; in “unbridled rein,” a patch of turf is sustained with artificial lighting, and an automatic mower moves over the grass to keep it trimmed and tidy.
Inspired by the urban urge to create natural sanctuaries, Hengeveld harnesses technology to cultivate representations of nature that retain a degree of artificiality.
On the second floor of the gallery, away from the mechanized whir of the kinetic sculptures, are two collections of contemporary paintings by current MFA students at U of G’s School of Fine Art and Music.
Rachel Crummey’s “Pharmakon” features the blob and the grid, and explores these basic forms in perverse and inventive ways using acrylic, charcoal, graphite, sludge, and other materials.
Pharmakon is a word with roots in ancient Greece, and its complex meaning refers to a dualistic role as both remedy and poison, or a drug, recipe, charm, medicine, substance, spell, artificial colour, or paint.
The titles of the abstract images in “Pharmakon” hint at possible interpretations, but also further complicate the subject matter rather than elucidating a fixed meaning. For example, one work featuring swirls of orange spray paint, in the style of street art, is titled “Sore Sore Sore.”
“You Sleep on Rubber Sheets” captivates with a colourful palette, but clashing colours vie for attention and forms intersect haphazardly. These paintings, collectively, navigate the potential disconnect that can arise when communicating through form.
Laura Findlay’s “For What is Sunk will Hardly Swim,” is rooted in nautical subject matter, but also employs abstraction to explore the limitations of historical archives and the practice of recreating past events through painting. “I am interested in histories of all kinds, from moments of great significance to personal histories that slip by unnoticed,” Findlay commented.
Findlay was inspired by archival material connected to Great Lake Shipwrecks, and was drawn to “the tradition of nautical lore” and “the imagery of shipping communities.”
“My aim is to find a balance of representation and abstraction in an image to avoid producing a pure illustration or mere likeness of my source subjects. Instead, the interruptions in the image suspend the visual information and introduce painterly gestures as an expressive element of the painting,” said Findlay.
The first painting in Findlay’s exhibit is a large-scale canvas of a turbulent sea, captured with thick and expressive gestural brushstrokes. Continuing through the exhibit, a series of smaller paintings, focused on nautical themes, present fragments of information, leaving the viewer to piece together the narrative.