Christian Worthington's "Three"

Worthington summons old masters to create modern spirituality

In his new exhibit Three, Christian Worthington makes a bold and decisive move to redefine modern spirituality. His innovative forms and multiple mediums emphasize individual piety. The art pulls the viewer’s focus in unexpected directions, creating a new way of seeing his subjects. In so doing, Three becomes a post-modern interpretation of the sacred. The exhibit opens November 28, 2013 at 7:00PM. Worthington will be in attendance.

Worthington’s command of realism, underpins the exhibit. His expressive oil and acrylic brush strokes make his abstract offerings subtlety dynamic. Large drawings take off from his usual studied realism using rough oil-bar with deceptive simplicity. The sculptures are a new exploration using techniques he mastered in painting and drawing to produce works of subtle beauty.

Three investigates the potentials of form to achieve its purpose. “I don't ‘express myself,” states Worthington. “Rather I pay close attention to what the piece is pulling out of me, what the forms are communicating."

Using historical techniques of drawing, painting and sculpture concurrently, he crosses the boundaries of tradition infusing each piece with all three elements. The strength of his art is increased by a vivid interior insight and spiritual awareness. Worthington challenges our preconceived notions of the sacred and profane to give us something new.

Artist Statement

Christian Worthington’s practice is a testament to the dexterity of form, and its capacity to prompt complex psychological and emotional responses within the viewer.

"I watch the picture make itself. I want to see it do something I could not have anticipated. I only step in when the piece wanders off and threatens to annihilate itself.

I don't "express my self", rather I pay close attention to what the piece is pulling out of me, what the forms are communicating."

To this, CW unveils a diverse exhibition reflecting a serious investigation into the potentialities of form that concurrently cross three historical art techniques:

Painting.
CW continues to hybridize abstraction and the figurative, typically incorporating themes from art history, assuming specific painterly styles that are purposely blurred to create a tension amid the material and immaterial. His catechetical study of the Masters mines early investigations into the technology of painting, dredging the dramatic depths and realism of the Renaissance, to the ephemeral purity and idealism of the Abstractionists.

Drawings.
These large-scale drawings, measuring up to 9x5 feet, are delineated and evolve in less than 20 minutes apiece. The speed in which they are created emphasizes a striking balance between the subject represented and the graphic quality of the lines themselves. Achieving a large-scale "sketch", CW achieves a blend of classic historical composition with the intense graphic action influenced by the Modern Nueue Wilde artists, notably Martin Disler, who composed in quick and expressive strokes.

Relief Sculpture.
CW’s sculpture, done in low relief, retains his painterly quality, but still represents to the artist a means to embrace the ancient practice of creating from clay- of molding forms from earth and water.

"For me, oils bring you back to the 14th Century. Clay brings you back to the first moments of human creation."

GFA invites you to experience some of the excitement to which Christian Worthington has shown great consideration over the past months of creation, of one image informing another. He hopes to enliven the audience to the highs and experiences of discovering and channeling ancient ideas into form.

Annunciation, Acrylic and Oil on Canvas, 2013, 11" x 14"

Here & Now by Aliana Au

Opening Night: November 1, 2013, 7:00PM
Exhibit: Nov 1 - 23, 2013

Aliana Au’s landscapes are measured prayers. Working in a free manner void of controlling lines, her brushstrokes create realities seemingly devoid of time and change. Au has no qualms about letting areas of canvas show. In an impressionistic effort, she employs free space to evoke the light and transparency of each piece in it's fragility.

Effortlessly, Au embraces an intuitive but meticulous style that is in search of harmony rather than a strict copy of reality. She seeks to return to her canvas each time a different person, completing small sections of each work over long periods of time. Painting is essentially a conversation. The landscapes are her tribute to the few places left untouched by the hand or foot of man. It is this unity of reflection and time that allows Au’s paintings to project the sense of eternity that she seeks.

Artist Statement

In landscape painting, I am searching for a time and place untouched by man. An artist draws from his/her life experience and his/her deep well of memories or core thoughts that are unwashed by time. I was born in a small village and grew-up in the country-side of southern China, near Guangzhou. My memory of this place was a poetic and magical one. When I traveled back years later, I could not find the place where I had attended school. The house that I used to live-in has been replaced with a high rise. Where there used to be a river, it is now a brick layered canal. There is so much wealth. Where is the wild natural beauty? What happen to it?

In recent years during my travel, I was so drawn to places where man had left nature untouched or tried to exist in harmony. Living in Canada, I am keenly aware of our vast, valuable, and unspoiled nature. My paintings are prayers for the future of these places and their habitat.

Visit Aliana Au's Artist Page for more information.  

Aliana Au, Nature's Garden, Acrylic on Canvas, 48" x 51"

Early Drawings by Eva Stubbs

Eva Stubbs in her studio, 2010, photograph by Andrew Sikorsky

After more than 52 years of artistic achievement and dedication to the art world Eva Stubbs will open her final exhibit, Early Drawings, at Gurevich Fine Art on October 4, 2013. The exhibit will feature a selection of Stubbs’ timeless works on paper. Early Drawings will run until October 26, 2013. Stubbs will attend the opening night reception. 

Eva Stubbs’ drawings penetrate the depth of the human condition. Her use of multiple mediums, from pen and ink to charcoal and oil stick showcase extraordinary range. Her powerful expressions show an honest balance between vulnerability and strength. The strong gestural lines of the figures in Stubbs' works are her testament to human endurance and her understanding of the human spirit. 

Known for her expressive clay work Stubbs’ considers her drawings to be a collection of studies in form and function. Stubbs describes her drawings as akin as playing scales for a pianist.  They allow her to rehearse. Many of Stubbs’ early representations became the catalyst for her most famous clay works. It is in the realization of Stubbs multi-dimensional work that a full appreciation of her drawings can begin.

Salt of the Earth, New Paintings from Megan Krause

Press Release

 Winnipeg, Manitoba – August 27, 2013 – Megan Krause is an oil painter attempting to reconcile her medium with her message. Ideals of sustainability and environmentalism clash with Krause’s seemingly hypocritical use of oil in her latest exhibit Salt of the Earth. The exhibit opens on September 6 at 7 PM and will run until September 20, 2013. Krause will attend the opening night reception.

In Salt of the Earth, Krause strives to explain the interconnectedness of the Earth’s resources, while grappling with the conflicting reality of modernism. She struggles to fulfill a greater purpose but worries painting may not be enough. Creating her paintings adds to the detritus of the world, but how else can Krause communicate her ideals?

“Salt of the Earth evokes a process of personal evaluation,” explains Krause. “Weighing the ways in which we bring food to the table, our consumer choices, how we get around, and through all of this, what we support.”

Consumer goods and industrial fragments litter Krause’s canvases, utilizing playful colour palettes and surrealist perspectives that contrast her serious subject matter. Krause’s imagery highlights her conflicting ethics and betrays the beauty that only oil can afford.

More about Gurevich Fine Art

Gurevich Fine Art is a contemporary art gallery that presents a broad view in regards to style with a strong emphasis on talent. The gallery is a focal point for artists and patrons at various levels to exchange visions. More information on Gurevich Fine Art is at www.gurevichfineart.com.

Contact

Alexandra Rohne
Communication Coordinator
Gurevich Fine Art
Tel: (204) 488-0662 | Fax: (204) 942-8144 | Web:  www.gurevichfineart.com 
Email: arohne@gurevichfineart.com | Twitter: @gurevichfineart
200-62 Albert Street Winnipeg, MB Canada R3B 1E9

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Megan Krause, Having legs to stand on, Acrylic and oil on linen, 48" x 30", 2013

The Winnipeg Art Gallery and Gurevich Fine Art Celebrate the Life and Art of Winnipeg Artist Eva Stubbs with Commission of Major Bronze Sculpture

PRESS RELEASE 

Winnipeg, Manitoba, August 6, 2013 —The Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) and Gurevich Fine Art will join a group of art patrons to honour and celebrate the life and art of Eva Stubbs, RCA, at a private dinner party to be held in the Gurevich Gallery on Thursday, October 3, 2013.

Stubbs’ studio closed in 2013 after more than 52 years of artistic achievement in various mediums including bronze, wood, stone, and clay, as well as works on paper. Her remaining works will be shown at an exhibition at Gurevich Fine Art in October.

Stubbs’ last major exhibition was presented at the WAG in 2010. At that time Dr. Stephen Borys, WAG Director & CEO, looked to acquire a major work by Stubbs for the Gallery’s rooftop sculpture garden. The WAG has now commissioned a bronze casting of Generation to add to the five works by Stubbs already held in their collection. “Generation is one of Eva’s most significant works, and we are thrilled that it will be a legacy piece on display on our rooftop, a fitting tribute to her important body of work.”

“We’re honoured to be involved in helping recognize Eva’s enormous contribution to the cultural fabric of not our city but the world,” states Gurevich Fine Art CEO Howard Gurevich.

A tribute to Eva Stubbs will be given at the dinner by Stephen Borys and Andrew Kear, WAG Curator of Canadian Historical Art. Patrons will be seated in the gallery surrounded by Stubbs’ studio work and maquettes. 

Tickets are limited to 50 guests with donations from patrons, including ticket sales being made to the WAG for the casting and purchase of Stubbs’ bronze sculpture Generation. The WAG is applying for matching funds from the Canada Council for the Arts for the commission.

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More about the Winnipeg Art Gallery

The Winnipeg Art Gallery is a cultural advocate for understanding and experiencing art and art-making, and their vital place in our lives, work, and society. The WAG is currently celebrating its 100th anniversary as Canada’s oldest civic art gallery.

Winnipeg Art Gallery contacts:

Debra Fehr, Manager, Communications and Marketing, 204.789.1767, communications@wag.ca

Heather Mousseau, Communications Coordinator, 204.786.6641, ext 211, communcations-coordinator@wag.ca

More about Gurevich Fine Art

Gurevich Fine Art is a contemporary art gallery that presents a broad view in regards to style with a strong emphasis on talent. The gallery is a focal point for artists and patrons at various levels to exchange visions. More information on Gurevich Fine Art is at www.gurevichfineart.com.

Gurevich Fine Art contact:

Alexandra Rohne, Communications Coordinator, 204.488.0662, arohne@gurevichfineart.com

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Secrets From the Vault

July 5 through August 31, 2013 - Opening night July 5 at 7:00pm, Part Two opening night August 2 at 7:00pm
Artists in Attendance

 Gurevich Fine Art Unveils Private Collection at Secrets from the Vault

Gurevich Fine Art proudly presents Secrets from the Vault, an exhibit of work from Gurevich Fine Art’s private collection. Secrets from the Vault highlights many works ranging from classic to contemporary by artists both well known and up-and-coming. The exhibit opens July 5 at 7 P.M. with many of the showcased artists in attendance.

Gurevich Fine Art is pleased to include the unique visions of our artists in our collection of contemporary art. Many of the works displayed during Secrets from the Vault have never been hung in the gallery before, making this exhibit an unveiling for many of Gurevich Fine Art’s artists.

Secrets from the Vault offers a diversity of images and ideas: from classic landscapes to modern abstracts and evocative nudes viewers will be simultaneously seduced by the surface beauty and engaged by the complex narratives within each piece. Secrets from the Vault promises an opportunity to catch a glimpse of the mysteries of some of Winnipeg’s foremost artists and emerging talent.

Secrets from the Vault opens Friday July 5, with a reception at 7 pm. This exhibit is on display at through August 30 2013, with work rotating throughout.

RSVP on Facebook

Far Country

Sue Gordon: Far Country

June 7 through 28, 2013 - Opening night June 7 at 7:00pm
Artist in attendance

Confronting Longing, Winnipeg Artist Sue Gordon Returns to the Horizon in Far Country

Winnipeg artist Sue Gordon's ethereal encaustic work bares the weight of her nostalgia for the prairie horizon. She now seeks to tell stories of longing associated with the increasingly disconnected world of social media set against her dramatic landscapes. The exhibit, Far Country opens June 7 at 7:00 P.M. with the artist in attendance. The exhibit will run from June 7 to 28 at Gurevich Fine Art.

"The older I get, my ability to hope and therefore the things that I long for have changed," explains Gordon. She feels social tools such as Pinterest and Tumblr allow people to derive importance from objects and construct an endless array of mythical lifestyles.

Harmonizing with Gordon's wall pieces are a number of waxed cement orbs, representative of this weight we carry. Gordon wants to encourage viewers to touch and lift the orbs as a physical reminder of her theme.  

"True longing is a complex experience. Far Country is the place wherewe feel incomplete and unsatisfied," Gordon states. 

"Perhaps this is why I return again to the land, to the sky, and to the weather. They are constants in my life through which I can reflect on memories of the past, on an imperfect present, and on longings for the future."

Discover more about Sue Gordon by clicking here.

Artist Statement

As I grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan, I have always been drawn to the horizon. In my work, the horizon has often been used as a metaphor for hope and longing – a thin band of light on the edge of a bleak prairie. However, the older I get, my ability to hope and the things that I long for have changed. The world is a dark place, and there have been seasons of life that have been difficult. Many of the horizons I now paint are obscured, as I feel I am unable to see things with the clarity I once had. 

I often think about the concept of ‘longing.’ I am interested in the things we long for, and the ways in which we long. With the recent advent of sites such as Tumblr and Pinterest there are thousands of people trying to derive meaning, significance, or a sense of beauty by scrolling through an apparently endless number of lifestyle images. As these sites are often about what is novel, they make me uneasy. Perhaps this is why I return again and again to the land, to the sky, and to the weather. They are constants in my life through which I can reflect on memories of the past, on an imperfect present, and on longings for the future. 

True longing is a complex experience. To long for “something more,” Far Country is where we have to feel incomplete and unsatisfied. Longing involves both positive and negative feelings. This ambivalence is something I hope my work communicates.

Tom Lovatt: Fight

April 5th - 27th, 2013

​There is no true explanation for Fight’s role in the whole of Tom Lovatt’s artistic oeuvre. It would seem a departure from his old-Master Spanish-court-painting-inspired works of recent years. His earlier studies, however, include many un-divulged drawings of boxers in fight, reflecting the internal conversation he has as a man confronted with perceptions of male identity. What might be called 'issues of masculine identity'; Lovatt now seeks to ask the question, “what is it to be a man in our society?”

In Lovatt’s observation, Sport, specifically boxing and mixed martial arts, is a major part of the entertainment industry. He is fascinated with masculine archetypes and their portrayal in the media. Lovatt questions, “do I fight because I'm a man? Or am I a man only when I fight? I couldn't do it, but does that make it wrong?”  

The dramatic presentation of hyper-masculinity depicted in sports media is what first interested the artist. In this body of work, he takes action-shots of Boxers apart, examines them, and puts them back together. It is in this interrogation of the male that Lovatt observes Boxing and MMA fighting is highly stylized and ritualized in its presentation.

The overall performance is dramatic, violent, suspenseful, and packed with action. Anticipation rises to a climax as the savage pummeling begins. When the final bloody blow is lain, the denouement, the showboating of the victor, turns to an emotional display of camaraderie: The vanquished rises, and in a complete reversal of what brutality went before, the Boxers embrace, kiss, smash gloves, and part brothers. 

Confronting the viewer with images of sport and perceived “masculinity” Fight provokes discomforting revelations about what we are accepting about masculinity and reality as viewers of popular media.

IN/ORganic

 Press Release

IN/ORganic Artists Make the Extra into the Extraordinary

Winnipeg, Manitoba - April 12, 2013 - Gurevich Fine Art presents IN/ORganic, an exhibition highlighting the duality of mixed media and found object artists John Erkel and Deborah Danelley. The exhibition will be unveiled Friday, May 3rd, with an opening reception at 7pm with the exhibit continuing until May 25th. 

Gurevich Fine Art continues its mandate of promoting contemporary Canadian and international fine art, and Erkel and Danelley’s exploratory and raw mixed media work is no exception.

“The pieces offer the viewer a connection, familiarity, and presence, that suggest an honoring of the past and a truthful respect and admiration for the beauty and processes of time,” explains Danelley of the organic nature of her deconstructed book pieces as well as the strong style of Erkel’s repurposed metal and plastics work.

“I fell in love with, as I call it, road kill. I live on a bicycle and I keep seeing these parts of cars, for me they were dark and black and I started collecting them," explains Erkel. "I’m the garbage man.”

IN/ORganic works to complement and contrast each artist displaying the beauty of things industrial and organic, impermanent and incomplete, the beauty of things unconventional. It is from this Wabi Sabi philosophy that Gurevich Fine Art brings IN/ORganic.

More about Gurevich Fine Art

Gurevich Fine Art is a contemporary art gallery that presents a broad view in regards to style, with a strong emphasis on talent. The gallery is a focal point for artists and patrons at various levels to exchange visions. More information on Gurevich Fine Art is at www.gurevichfineart.com.

Contact

Alexandra Rohne

Communications

Gurevich Fine Art
Tel: (204) 488-0662 | Fax: (204) 942-8144 | Web: www.gurevichfineart.com 

Email: arohne@gurevichfineart.com | Twitter: @gurevichfineart
200-62 Albert Street
Winnipeg, MB Canada R3B 1E9

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Tom Lovatt: Fight

Winnipeg, Manitoba – March 28, 2013 – With a career spanning 40 years Tom Lovatt is one of Winnipeg’s best-known figurative artists. Lovatt’s new exhibit Fight takes his work to places many have not yet witnessed. It contains paintings and many un-divulged drawings of boxers and mixed martial artists in contest. Fight reflects the internal conversations Lovatt has confronted about perceptions of male identity. Fight opens Friday, April 5th at 7:00 P.M. and the exhibit continues to April 27th at Gurevich Fine Art.

Lovatt observes that boxing and mixed martial arts is a major part of the entertainment industry. He is fascinated with masculine archetypes and their portrayal in the media. Lovatt questions, “Do I fight because I'm a man? Or am I a man only when I fight?”

Fight provokes discomforting revelations about our perceptions of “masculinity” by confronting the viewer with images of blood sport. Adding to this interesting question is the beauty of Lovatt’s painting technique.

More about Gurevich Fine Art
Gurevich Fine Art is a contemporary art gallery that presents a broad view in regards to style with a strong emphasis on talent. The gallery is a focal point for artists and patrons at various levels to exchange visions. More information on Gurevich Fine Art is at www.gurevichfineart.com.

Contact
Alexandra Rohne
Communications

Gurevich Fine Art
Tel: (204) 488-0662 | Fax: (204) 942-8144 | Web: www.gurevichfineart.com | Email: arohne@gurevichfineart.com | Twitter: @gurevichfineart
200-62 Albert Street
Winnipeg, MB Canada R3B 1E9

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Andrew Beck: Under the Same Blue Sky

​Under the same blue sky; when is the new really new?

As we look around at our city we realize it is in a constant stage of change.

As the buildings decay or are repurposed the past becomes anecdotal, caught by small details of our history and the new which rises. When did the trees grow and when did so many disappear?

We long for stability, we capture the moment when that building made sense, and this one didn’t.

Modernism becomes our Victorian art deco or art nouveau, we look for beauty in the form of our buildings as the bottom line impacts these decisions.

We cannot fix in space but we can see under the continuity of the seasons and of the skies. Change is the continuity and the natural world continues unabated and unconcerned with our concept of time.

We are more like trees and less like dominators of the natural world.

Gerry Kopelow - Restoration

Restoration is the first showing of a body of work depicting the resurrection of derelict heritage buildings. The photos provide an intimate glimpse of once grand structures, stripped down to their basic structural elements, just at the beginning of their long road to full restoration.

Small Works Show

Fine Art for Holiday Giving

Featuring works by over 20 Artists

December and January

Christian Worthington: Painting is History

In his new show Painting Is History Christian Worthington is looking at paint and paintings: their ability to withstand cultural and technological shifts throughout history, as well as their ability to evoke powerful emotional connections. Worthington is also exhibiting his process as a painter, displaying the stages and transformations that are essential to the completion of his work. The show presents the scope of painting from the sketches to the final glazes. 

Worthington’s total focus on art history has made an enormous impact on his work. Worthington with-drew from art school early in favor of travelling to major art museums to study from master works in person. Pre-vious exhibitions have fluctuated between classical images (reminiscent of DaVinci or Caravaggio) or abstract color fields in the tradition of Abstract Expressionism. Worthington does not identify as an abstract expressionist but shares the movement’s concentration on tone, tension and color. 

Painting Is History features representational images of figures ,with a focus on portraiture, and equestrian images. Process plays a large role in this show and the works are displayed at various stages of completion. Wor-thington begins a painting intuitively; at first generously applying layers of glaze and color, then stripping away the excess and sharpening the image. Showing pieces in development stages is aimed to engage the viewer with the tradition of painting and to draw attention to technique. It is difficult to see the lifespan of a painting in an impene-trable, finished work. Revealing the drawings and “underpaintings” that are crucial to preparation allows the viewer to witness Worthington’s skill at “building” a piece and engaging the viewer to participate visually. Re-creating the studio inside the gallery emphasizes the paintings as handmade “work” and distances the viewer from seeing them as lacquered merchandise. 

Worthington’s exceptional technical ability and skill is obvious at every stage of the process. He displays incredible control in his lines and shadow within translucent, but lush, tones. Previous paintings have followed the baroque style of high-drama contrast between light and dark but this collection features a gentler clarity. His por-traits are composites based on models but are not meant to be about a person – first and foremost they are about painting. Worthington has pushed the figure in the paintings very close to the picture plane, creating an intimacy with the viewer. This closeness is meant to be introspective and transportable; the figure holds your gaze and forms a connection. 

Painting is a part of history, which makes it difficult to be judged on its own – it comes with baggage and preconceptions. Worthington’s preoccupation with this history was previously something he felt he needed to ob-scure in order to contemporize. Art culture tends to create a “cultural orthodoxy” that pits “beautiful” art against the conceptual. Although he feels that contemporary art is susceptible to trends and fashions that can taint the pur-pose of an art piece, Worthington feels his paintings are contemporary interpretations rather than reproductions. Painting Is History abandons any insecurity around his influences and wholly embraces them, this shift is apparent in the confidence of the collection. In the hands of a lesser artist this question could be overshadowed by economic and political discourse, but Worthington’s undeniable talent and enterprise show he has serious consideration for painting’s past and present.

Buffy Saint-Marie - 16 Million Colours

Gurevich Fine Art is proud to present the Canadian premiere exhibition of Sixteen Million Colours, a collection of digital art by music icon Buffy Sainte-Marie. The exhibit is a presentation illuminating the surprising beauty of digital images and Sainte-Marie’s experience as one of the first artists to create within the computerized realm.

The world premiere opens to the public on Friday, October 12, 2012 at Gurevich Fine Art in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

For over four decades, Academy-Award winner Sainte-Marie has – and continues to - channel her infinite musical and artistic creativity as a musician, composer, social activist and educator. The digital work in Sixteen Million Colours echoes Sainte-Marie’s love of artistic experimentation through art that is multilayered both technically and conceptually.  She explains, “One thing all these works have in common, they all combine layers of different realities as well as techniques – photographic, scanned objects, digital painting, painting and layers of ideas and emotions.” The pieces in this collection explore Sainte-Marie’s development as a digital artist as well as her identity as an Aboriginal artist.

Sainte-Marie has been creating digital art since 1984. Pushed to develop a virtual studio due to the constraints of her busy touring schedule, she began to experiment using a tiny 128K computer and the early graphic design program, MacPaint, to create visual art. “These paintings unintentionally represent a history of digital art programs including MacPaint, SuperPaint, PixelPaint and Photoshop,” says Sainte-Marie. Almost three decades later, these works reflect the visionary spirit of Sainte-Marie – a pioneer of digital art-making.

The work in Sixteen Million Colours is an unexpected display of images at once traditional and futuristic, serious and psychedelic.

About Sixteen Million Colours

The presentation of Sixteen Million Colours is the first comprehensive exhibition of Sainte-Marie’s digital work.

Sixteen Million Colours opens Friday, October 12 with a public reception at 7:00PM.

Bill Lobchuk

The environment, the topographical view, is more often than not seen through the filter of a camera, a postcard or a window.  Fields of grain, bodies of water and the movement of the sun are taken for granted in their constancy. The intense energy, color and immensity of nature are sometimes expressed more poignantly in a painting than can be seen by the naked eye. Picks From the Rabbit Hole is a collection of work based on artist Bill Lobchuk’s interpretations on the Canadian landscape and reflections on the impermanence of a place.

Living within the rural landscape has been a large part of Lobchuk’s life from childhood and throughout adulthood. His talent for drawing was encouraged by elementary school teachers and nurtured while attending the University of Manitoba’s School of Art. Lobchuk studied during a time when environmental or prairie motifs were not considered serious art compared to the status held by the American movements in minimalism and abstract painting.

He and his fellow students rebelled against the oligarchy of US curators and critics in Canada by focusing on subjects closer to home.  Lobchuk primarily worked in printmaking throughout his career, founding the Grand Western Canadian Screen shop in 1968 and working as a national representative (and later elected director) of CARFAC. Lobchuk worked to represent the styles and artists coming out of central and western Canada and keep institutions and projects within Winnipeg.

Throughout the works in Picks From the Rabbit Hole there is an underlying commentary on endangered environments. One recalls the landscapes made famous by Canada’s revered Group of Seven and their portrayal of the wild new world as bold and monolithic. Similarly striking images appear in Lobchuk’s work but the cultural relationship to the environment has vastly changed since the last century. The paintings are memorials to icons of a country – its trees and lakes, agriculture and industry – that are constantly threatened. Nature is no longer a force to be endured but one that requires protecting.

Lobchuk is attracted to elements of nature he perceives as endangered. During his journeys to British Colombia he takes back roads and follows railway lines to photograph sources for his paintings. Grain elevators and silo’s built in the last century are on their last legs; pretty soon they will be torn down and replaced. In contrast to this fact their presence in Lobchuk’s work is monumental: the scene depicted in the painting may appear bucolic but in reality it is tenuous and will only exist for a short while longer. His interest in painting tropical birds and sketches of landmark Winnipeg buildings and neighbourhoods are also informed by the desire to create a memento of things that are sentimental, beautiful or inspiring but threatened. These paintings are likely to survive longer than many buildings in Winnipeg.

Nouvelle ‘Peg II

Gurevich Fine Art proudly presents Nouvelle ‘peg II, the second annual exhibit of work from 2012’s graduates and post-graduates from the University of Manitoba’s School of Art. Nouvelle ‘peg II showcases the emerging voices in painting from June 8th to 22nd, 2012.

Gurevich Fine Art is pleased to include the unique vision of the developing artist into its collection of contemporary art. The selected artists have created work depicting the suspended state between community and independence. With focused skill and youthful confidence each artist explores their relationship with nature and industry in a digital age.

Nouvelle ‘peg was conceived by the gallery and is assisted by one of its noted artists, Cliff Eyland. A professor of painting at the School of Art, Eyland’s work is exhibited across Canada and internationally. Together they have selected Anna Robinson, Ashley Feduniw, Jillian Peters McGillvray, Kae Sasaki, Shannon Yascheshen and Gurpreet Sehra to represent the newest generation of artists in Winnipeg.

Nouvelle ‘peg II offers a diversity of images and ideas: from mediations on typewriters and trains to the lush landscapes of “hoser” art, viewers will be simultaneously seduced by the surface beauty and engaged by the complex narratives within each piece. Nouvelle ‘peg II promises an opportunity to catch a glimpse of what’s to come from Winnipeg’s latest electric contemporary artists.

Nouvelle ‘peg officially opens Friday June 8th, with a reception at 7 pm.

Winnipeg’s Gurevich Fine Art has put together a show of paintings by several artists who have just graduated from the University of Manitoba School of Art, along with work by one of the School’s current graduate students. The gallery has asked me to write a few words, and I am happy to do that.

Painting is a form of illustration these days, whether or not a work is photorealist or completely abstract. Illustration is a condition of contemporary painting because paintings are now seen as images first before they are seen in terms of their constituent materials or forms. Even a new abstract painting must account for itself as an image that makes reference to previous abstract paintings. Images are the ground zero of painting now, and images are illustrations, but in a sense they are “illustrations for nothing” since they are not commissioned but wholly the product of the artist’s imagination and skill. What these works illustrate is sometimes not so straightforward.

Anna Robinson and Ashley Feduniw are smoking buddies whose Art Barn studios faced each other for the last – their final – year at the School of Art. Both artists depict mechanical things in their paintings – typewriters, trains and hydro poles -- as if to confound our sense that we live in a purely digital age. Feduniw’s typewriter paintings and Robinson’s train cars and hydro poles harken back to a precisionist aesthetic of artists of the 1920s such as Charles Sheeler and Charles Demuth, art that celebrated the machine age. It is interesting to me that Feduniw and Robinson are preoccupied with the non-digital, the stubbornly physical and industrial realities that, indeed, have not disappeared into digital culture any more than have paint and canvas.

One way to look at Jill Peters’s recent painting is to place it within what by now is a hallowed tradition of “hoser” art, that is, art that revels in Canadian identity, landscape and rurality. Much of this recent painting, like Peters’s, falls within the stylistic orbit of the art superstar Peter Doig, however Peters’s work may simply share sources with Doig that include the Canadian wilderness, hunting and winter sports, things with which many Manitobans grow up.

Shannon Yashcheshen revives a collagist mode of painting reminiscent of early pop art – it might be more specifically called “photomontage” -- in which the seamless surfaces of commercial culture are restored to the source that is a torn paper collage. This is accomplished by means of re-rendering of an image in evenly applied paint. Yashcheshen also makes hyper-realistic paintings based on her own photographs. Her subject matter is almost invariably female, and her work enacts a value-added strategy by which an ordinary photo or a miniscule collage is blown up into a carefully made painting.

Kae Sasaki makes paintings that are hybrids of Japanese and European fairy tales. She paints in the format of traditional Japanese folding screens, but mixes up references to Grimm brothers and ancient Japanese stories that, however accessible as paintings, require special knowledge of their sources to fully appreciate. Like Ashley Feduniw and Shannon Yascheshen, she uses an impeccable realist technique as a given, but then fractures the imagery and the narratives.

Gurpreet Sehra is having a lot of fun lately making paint on fabric works that interrogate aspects of male Punjabi culture. She plays with feminine tropes across a western/Asian divide in a way that makes a lot of cross-dressing sense." 

- Cliff Eyland is a Winnipeg artist

Lei Cox: Being There

Video Pool Media Arts Centre and Gurevich Fine Art present: Lei Cox - Being There with new work by Andrew Milne and Doug Smith.

Follow Lei Cox on a journey to fiction and back again. Video Pool Media Arts Centre in collaboration with Gurevich Fine Art are please to present a retrospective of Lei Cox`s work from 1986 to 2011.  Current work includes: Being There. Comprised of three video performance works that form a triptych, each video has been inspired by a life long obsession with flight, space travel and human desire to push the envelope. Catching Sight of Sputnik 2009/11, Race 2010/11, and Auto Draw 2010  will be exhibited together displaying a range of work that begins with a 26-year quest to find a surrealistic fiction, or the unusual, in everyday life through the medium of photography and video.

Biography

Lei Cox works with video installation, video art, performance-to-camera and photography and has shown his work worldwide since 1985. His work has often been described a surreal, humorous and science fictional. Cox began working with black and white photography, this was essentially shot straight and with no special effects where finding the unusual in everyday landscapes and portraits was the dominant theme. These early photographs were made with full-frame purity, dramatic light with high contrast and tonal exaggeration. The work changed direction after considering experimentation with sandwich negatives in the enlarger, studio lighting work, filmmaking and video art and the vast possibilities of moving images and early digital video effects. Together with parallel interests in sound and music, video art and video installation became his main form of expression. Later utilizing digital broadcast quality production and post production equipment he began questioning the need for extensive compositing, the reliance of the computer and the over complication of some works which took up to two years to construct. Major solo exhibitions have been shown in the Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide, Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow, Laing Gallery, Newcastle and Gallery Rene Coelho, Amsterdam. Cox has also been exhibited in shows including Tel Aviv Museum of Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tate Gallery Liverpool, Osnabruck European Media Art Festival, His Single screen work has been shown in over 70 international festivals and he has recently completed an interactive camera obscura public artwork, The Dark Room:  Mountain to Sea - Beyond Site which is situated on Cairngorm Mountain in Scotland.

Andrew Milne

Mechanical Shadows

A series of mechanical representations inquire about the future and the history of reproduction. Sculpture, photography, drawing, painting all move within the images resisting definition as any one medium. Reconstructions of body and vision are formed by the mechanical hand of a photographic artist; the gaze manifest as the shadow of shadows.

At the age of 31 years old Andrew quit his career as an Engineering Technologist and began an artistic practice in Vancouver involving photography, sculpture and contemporary dance. Working in the exchange he develops image making technologies, devices and machines that act as both product and process of his art practice. Andrew is asking if there is still a way to celebrate the physical and the personal within current and future systems of our technologically organized culture.

Andrew has received funding from the Manitoba Arts Council, the Winnipeg Arts Council, Video Pool Inc and the Winnipeg Film Group.

Doug Smith

Defining identity is dubious, the identity of a period in time even more so. We do however, associate certain colours, fashions and values to specific eras in time; one example being the international exportation and influence of America's particular tastes and values via Hollywood. I revisit the notion of identity of previous decades, essentially Canadian and North American identity, through a series of inventive portraitures, using various painted surface treatments and hand-cut paper elements.

Doug Smith was educated at the University of Manitoba in the Fine Arts Diploma Program. He continued as a sculptor in clay for several years. In 1996 - 2001, Smith moved from Canada to Cleveland and Rotterdam. It was during his time in Rotterdam that he re-aligned his artistic practice towards drawing. The trajectory of his current drawing practice was greatly influenced by The Netherlands; a geologically vulnerable country whose history encompasses centuries of expansive mercantile entrepreneurship and superhuman engineering projects, yet also a historically mono-cultural country wrestling with contemporary immigration challenges. What initiated from this period, for Smith, was an experimental, diagrammatic-based art that probes the concept of human transmigrations. He places the optics not upon one particular country or city, but on the world stage, inferring the realm of a collective psyche. He utilizes a visual set of self-derived codes, symbols and images that are re-contextualized throughout an ongoing suite of narrative- based drawings; a project that would be brought to fruition after his return to Canada.

Video Pool Media Arts Centre is a nonprofit Artist-Run Centre dedicated to independent video, audio and computer integrated multimedia production, located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Los Cubanos

“With art from Asia and Russia in demand, some in the art world are betting on Cuba to be the next hot corner of the market. Prices for Cuban art are climbing at galleries and auction houses, and major museums are adding to their Cuban collections.” Kelly Crow – The Wall Street Journal

Gurevich Fine Art warms up the gallery with Los Cubanos!, an exhibition of work by Jairo Alfonso, Francisco Núñez, and Dalvis Tulya, three cutting-edge artists from the extraordinary nation of Cuba. It is a rare opportunity to view and own works by three renowned Cuban artists.

Los Cubanos! opens at Gurevich Fine Art, 200-62 Albert Street, on Friday, March 2nd, with an opening reception at 7pm-10pm. The exhibition closes March 24, 2012.

Francisco Núñez paints abstract portraits. Powerful faces furtively emerge beneath strong slashes of vibrant paint against starkly composed canvases. The abstract and the figurative are blended with a sort of minimalism where the drawing plays a more leading role while there is less importance for the identity of the portrayed. Yet the faces are still powerful, full of energy and depth.

“My work has been a sort of reductionism on portraying. Perhaps they are showing my influence from music, which assumes reiteration without prejudice. For example, a solo instrument or voice, with only minimal background for support as reproduced in a portrait.”

Jairo Alfonso balances objects and curios in tippy stacks in his coffee and ink drawings. They animated into his video installation, a collective montage of small monuments dedicated to his Cuban experience.

Recently he has been exploring the symbolism inherent in objects found in daily life, and the manner in which they characterized generations, a civilization, a human group. These drawings are inspired by the Diogenes syndrome, that is, the behavior of hoarding and collecting. Objects in daily life are consumed through their use in daily life and then are not discarded. The results are “boxes” full of various clutter. This idea translates into an obsession to draw, in Jairo's object filled pieces.

Dalvis Tuya’s works involve taking a step back to see the full picture emerge, and a step forward to see the tiny, repeated patterns of smaller images that form the whole. The full effect of their works together comprises small peeks into the larger experience and challenges of being nurtured in this legendarily esoteric nation. 

Gurevich Fine Art is a contemporary art gallery that primarily focuses on Canadian art, but has expanded its mandate to include bright, international talent. The gallery represents such artists as Cliff Eyland, Cyrus Smith, Christian Worthington, Andre Milne, Tom Lovatt, Nereo II, Doug Smith, Miriam Rudolph, Katherine Bruce, Robert Bruce, Derek Brueckner, Robert Sim, Sue Gordon, Louis Bako, Elaine Banerjee, Aliana Au, Marie-Doris Valois, and more.

Los Cubanos!

Friday, March 2nd

Gurevich Fine Art, 200-62 Albert Street,

Opening reception : 7pm-10pm.

The exhibition closes March 24, 2012.

Lost in a World (I was Here)

Gurevich Fine Art is honoured to present Milos Milidrag’s latest body of work in the exhibition Lost in a Lost World (I Was Here).

The show opens at Gurevich Fine Art with a reception on Thursday, December 8th, beginning at 7pm. The exhibition continues to December 31, 2011.

Born in the former Yugoslavia, Milos Milidrag graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and obtained a Master of Fine Arts from University Of Belgrade. He taught at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Pristine in Kosovo. He has exhibited locally in over 100 group and 12 major individual shows as well as internationally. Over the years he has worked from a minimalist style to one more expressive and surreal.

In his latest series of drawings and paintings, Milos uses tropes and mythology to express the emotions of being displaced. The artist fled his war-ravaged country in 1997 to live in Winnipeg, where the shock of adjustment charged his artistic practice significantly.

He took periodic refuge in the somber walls of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, endeared to the gallery’s vast array of Inuit artifacts. Drawing metaphor and comfort from the stark presentation of these strange, isolated figures, his latest works abide in the familiarity of estrangement he experiences when encountering Inuit art.

He continues to push his hyper-narratives in surrealist style, filling stark tableaus with mystical creatures, which are all at once playful and nightmarish. He uses a serene colour palette against sparse landscapes to achieve an otherworldly effect. The pervading sense is that Milos’ works are born of truth. Lost in a Lost World is a heart-rending expression of, loss, wonder, inexplicable anguish and beauty.

Lost in a Lost World (I Was Here) opens Thursday, December 8th, with a reception at 7pm. The exhibition will be on display at Gurevich Fine Art, #200-62 Albert Street, from December 9th until December 31, 2011.