5th Anniversary of Skew Gallery and Kim Dorland's "Canadian Content" Opening Reception

Image Courtesy of Skew Gallery

Canadian Content - Kim Dorland

September 10 - October 10, 2009

Opening Reception and Skew Gallery's 5th Anniversary Celebration:

Thursday September 10th, 6 - 8pm. Artist in Attendance

Taken from the Skew Gallery Website http://www.skewgallery.com

"Like many painters today, Mr. Dorland operates in the gap between legible imagery and paint's luscious, even oppressive materiality... Like his use of color, Mr. Dorland's paint handling often has a surprising delicacy and control."
- Roberta Smith, The New York Times, June 19, 2009

In conjunction with its 5th anniversary, Skew Gallery is pleased to present its third solo exhibition for artist Kim Dorland. The new paintings in Canadian Content explore as subject the tradition and experience of landscape painting in Canada. With veneration for Canada's hero-artist, Tom Thomson, Dorland explores imagery of the artist's life and paintings, taking his cues from Thomson's painting expeditions into Canada's back-country. The paintings for Canadian Content were created exclusively during Dorland's guest artist residency at the historic Emma Lake Artist Workshops in Northern Saskatchewan where he endured heavy rain and a constant barrage of mosquitoes to obtain the experience of Canadian plein air painting. In contrast to a studio practice based in the heart of an urban environment, the tranquil and remote surroundings of Emma Lake provided Dorland with a fertile ground to reduce the excess and communicate through visual language in a more minimal yet signature way. Dorland's Emma Lake paintings are indeed impacted by this environment where simple words communicate volumes. Experiencing plein air painting for the first time, Dorland delved deeper into colour-field relationships, recounting an abundance of visual information by distilling it to powerful gestures and blocks of colour.

What Norman Rockwell is to American national identity, Tom Thomson is to Canada's - a poster child for all that is nature in Canada. Dorland pays homage to Tom Thomson's renowned early 20th century sojourns, as a platform from which to explore the tradition of Canadian landscape painting and it's connection to an idyllic notion of being one with nature. A more accurate present-day identity is a country comprised of urbanites, celebrating our weekend communes with nature in "cappuccino-cabins" and trodden woodland paths; the influence of our manufactured society ever-present. Dorland's use of paint and colour in his contemporary landscape paintings besmirch our perception that our society somehow shares a commonality with the iconic artist who was truly exposed to nature when he painted. By contrast Dorland's brazen colour palette reflects a hinterland where man co-exists with speed boats, graffiti, sea-doos, R.V.s and dirt bikes. With reverence, Dorland engages the mystery around the iconic artist - depicting his last canoe expedition from which he never returned, recreating his portrait, and reinterpreting the 1915 painting called Tamarak. In a spectacular eruption of up-to-the-minute colour and texture with brushstrokes that are precise and structured, yet reactive Dorland creates a unique, contradictory painting style: bold and frenetic, yet simultaneously in control.

Kim Dorland received his BFA from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada. He went on to complete his MFA at York University in Toronto. He has exhibited his work widely, with solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Milan and across Canada. He is the recipient of numerous grants and his work is included in a number of important collections such as the Sander Collection in Berlin, Germany, The Glenbow Museum, The Montreal Museum of Fine Art and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City. His exhibitions have been reviewed by publications such as The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Globe and Mail, and Saatchi on line Daily. Dorland lives and works in Toronto, Canada.

ABOUT SKEW:

Skew Gallery is committed to working in conjunction with its represented artists by cultivating career development, establishing international context, and seeking career defining opportunities. Skew's programming schedule is built around solo and curated thematic group exhibitions, which includes guest artists and curators.
Skew Gallery was established in September 2004, and is owned and directed by Emily Barnett and Bart Habermiller. Together, their culmination of diverse experience in the arts and business reaches over 20 years.

Habermiller, a practicing artist and graduate from the Masters Sculpture Program at the Art Institute of Chicago, has been a key figure in Calgary's burgeoning art community. He has been the visionary and facilitator for numerous art initiatives as well as an accomplished curator. Habermiller was also a founder of the 11 year-running Graceland collective as well as Calgary's original Art Rodeos.

Barnett, has a extensive experience in the commercial gallery side of the art community. Her cultivated work experience in art consulting for private and corporate collections, representing artists in public art opportunity, and broad experience working in several art galleries, have honed her innovative approach to doing business within the arts.

Skew continually receives favorable critical attention for both its innovative approach to business in the arts and for the work of our represented artists and has recently exhibited internationally at the acclaimed art fairs Scope Basel, Switzerland,  NEXT invitational art fair, Chicago, Aqua Wynwood, Miami, and photo LA, in Santa Monica, California.