September 7 – 28, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, September 7th, 7 – 11 pm
Neither talk of intention nor talk of intuition can enable us to grasp that painting, as a result of its irreducible inner differentiation, produces its own form of rationality, which can be adequately described neither in the categories of instrumental reason, nor in those of mythical inspiration.
- Jan Verwoert
Urgent. Emergent. Emergency.
Alison Shields’ second solo exhibition with the Gam Gallery focuses on the process of painting. Stemming from her MFA thesis work at the University of Waterloo, Shields’ canvases are the result of layers upon layers of tracings that are used to generate subsequent paintings. For the current exhibition, Shields has returned to her previous works in order to continue the painting process, suggesting that the finished product on view is not the final definition of these works and negating the possibility for an end result even in their display.
In its Latin origins, “emergence” means “to work one’s way out of a critical situation,” suggesting that the moment of decision-making in the process of painting stems from a crisis produced by the endless possibilities that may take shape. A decision must be made in order to proceed. Shields exploits this juncture in her large canvases along with a new series of sixty paintings on 11 x 14” sheets of yupo paper that were painted in various locations around Vancouver.
Gallery Hours: Tues, Thurs – Sat, 1 to 5 pm
