Jonathan Forrest: Painter’s Preogative
Reception: September 16, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm
Visit the gallery at 238 3rd Avenue S, Saskatoon to view the show, featuring recent small-scale work on canvas and paper by abstract painter Jonathan Forrest. Over the course of nearly four decades, Forrest has established a national reputation for his unique and continuously evolving approach to abstraction. Throughout the breadth of his production, which is paradoxically notable for its variety as well as its cohesiveness, one element remains constant: his passion for the medium of paint.
Jonathan Forrest, “Side by Side”, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 32x24”
Jonathan Forrest, “Walk in the Park”, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 32x24”
Jonathan Forrest, “Comedians”, 2021, acrylic on paper, 30.125x22”
Jonathan Forrest, “Let’s Get Blue”, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 32x24”
For a painter, few things are more enchanting than paint. Art historian James Elkins called it their “life’s blood”. The act of painting--the brushing, smearing, pushing, scraping, and pulling of coloured mud across a two-dimensional surface--is a tactile, physical process that is also psychic, sensual, sensational; an experience of both the hand (body) and the mind. It is, to borrow another phrase from Elkins, “liquid thought”. It is fluid, mercurial, unstable, alchemical potential offering limitless possibilities. It is unlike any other medium, a fact that Forrest, like all painters, knows intimately.
Jonathan Forrest was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and grew up on the Canadian prairies. He divides his studio time between Vancouver Island and small-town Saskatchewan. He has exhibited extensively in Canada and abroad and his work can be found in numerous public and private collections. His upcoming exhibition at Art Placement coincides with a mid-career survey on view at Art Gallery of Swift Current from September 11th to October 30th. Click here for more information about the exhibition in Swift Current.
You can also view the full exhibition online at http://www.artplacement.com/gallery/exhibitions_images.php?ex_id=265.