On exhibit at the Art45 Gallery is the show FOUR by Canadian artist Landon Mackenzie. Currently based in Vancouver, BC, Mackenzie is a graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (1976) and completed her graduate work at Concordia University in 1979. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Medal for her service to the arts for Canada and has worked as a distinguished professor in visual arts at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver since 1986.
Well known for her large scale paintings, Gallery Art45 has chosen four of her most recent works to be featured in this exhibit. Working mostly with oil and acrylic on linen, these four pieces are in line with an ongoing theme in the artist’s work which has been a keen interest in the cartography, maps and neurological systems. Her uses of colour and form have produced a wildly vivid and abstract study on the human systems of movement.
The first selection of Mackenzie’s work in the gallery is the piece entitled Rose Square. Aptly named, this piece is comprised of a multitude of squares all superimposed upon one another. At first glance, there is a clear layering technique used to present the shapes. The base coat of this work is done in pink followed by green and then red squares speckled generously with blue squares. I can’t help but think of pixels on a computer screen vying for the attention of the end user. Images on a screen are made up of hundreds of pixels and this canvas acts as a zoom lens that blows up the size of the computer generated shapes and allows us to have an intimate look into this hidden world. On an adjoining wall is the piece Signal (Birthday Party) which is part of her Neurocity Series (2010-2011) and is quite literally an explosion of colour. Multiple lines of colour that are joined at a focal point in the middle of the canvas fly out in all directions accompanied by concentric rings of white spheres which spin out from the centre and occupy the canvas. Although this piece is entitled Signal (Birthday Party), I am somewhat inspired to envision this painting as a representation of the universal Big Bang at its moment of conception. The allusion of movement is dazzling as your senses are assaulted by colour flying at you at full speed.
On the opposite wall is the piece of entitled Wild Red which is imbued with a rosy red colour overlaid with shapes that look like tree branches with circles of colour growing like fruit from a tree. The circles are made up of hues like deep greens, violets, ochres and oranges and are also reminiscent of a tree with colourful leaves in autumn.
Next to this piece is the canvas (Spin) Otis and Ash. This work is made up of a yellow base completely covered with circles, rings and spots of varying sizes and colours. Unlike her other painting Signal, the lines in Spin seem to be creeping their way in from the edges of the canvas towards the centre. At the centre is cloudy white area that highlights curvy lines made up of evenly spaced dots. The look and feel is reminiscent of the Berlin or Paris subway systems that are integral in connecting people and places like that of human arteries that maintain the smooth function of the human body.
The latest works by Landon Mackenzie are creations that are Kinectic and cybernetic which by their very nature form bridges and ladders for the influx of information and ideas in a larger system of which we are all a part of.
Art45, space 220
Landon Mackenzie
FOUR
February 15 – March 23, 2013
www.art45.ca
