Using absence and displacement Jon Knowles’ show at Galerie Laroche/Joncas makes room for questions and conversations as it lightens the weight of importance usually placed on the artists’ finished product. Knowles, who is neither a sculptor or a painter, yet shies away from the title conceptual artist, hung a set of paintings begun in 2010 in the gallery and finished them on site, adding layers upon layers of primary colors that rendered their wood bases a nuanced black and created soft, multicoloured clouds around their edges. In this way, he brought the studio to the gallery and left traces of the artistic process all over its walls, drawing a link between the exposition space and the creative act.
Knowles then removed the paintings and hung them in the gallery’s back room, leaving only framed outlines of white rectangles along the walls. On June 16th and 23th they were moved yet again for a special viewing in the Hyatt Regency hotel room that overlooks the MAC. Placing the finished paintings outside the white cube space of the gallery brought them away from where art is quietly contemplated into area where discussions are more likely to occur. Knowles’ playful experiment is rich in thought and a delight to observe.
Galerie Laroche/Joncas, space 410
Jon Knowles
Blood Oranges
June 13– July 22, 2012
www.larochejoncas.com
See John Knowles concurrent solo show, Mixed Misuse, at the Darling Foundry until September 2nd.
