This exhibition presents two new series of paintings by Forest, Ontario-based artist Gary Spearin. The first, iNifiNiTi, is a sequence of abstract compositions based on the variability of the artistic imagination, captured at particular points in time. Spearin’s highly chromatic impasto creates an illusion of space that shifts or disappears. This sense of grounding jars against an otherwise heavily nonrepresentational approach to his work.
The artist further complicates easy analysis by working sequentially, as is indicated by the numerical titles of the paintings their date signatures. He displays the resulting works in grid form, recalling the familiar format of a calendar. By fusing ideas of invention, intuition and cultural systems of marking time, iNifiNiTi becomes an endeavour in aesthetic and symbolic tension.
The second series is Spearin’s most recent investigation of monochrome. The project involves the mixing of colours from a source image, such as a photograph, flag or other familiar form, to create a painting in flat, unique grey. Arranging the resulting works together heightens their tonal differences. Their titles reference the original object, though Spearin’s intervention masks specific content. LikeiNifiNiTi, such an act embraces contradiction, reflecting memory, silence, and hidden identity.