ARTnotes

Stopping By Woods
Artport, Harbourfront 


Six  contemporary Canadian artists  address our relationship to nature  in this cohesive exhibition  curated by Patrick Macaulay. The renovated space of the Artport   provides a large welcoming space in which to  view five    large black and white paintings    by Monica Tapp   and opposite , four vibrant canvasses by Gary Evans.
 In Evan's paintings energetic brushwork weaves together to form dense tangles of  colour and form. As always he is a master at playing of f one kind of space against another. Amorphous shapes seem to float in front of the  surface , in other places mysterious tunnels draw the  eye back through clusters of vivid brushwork.  While  I didn't find these works as fascinating as some of his earlier  ones where he  mixes urban imagery with landscape motifs, they have many beautiful passages and push at the boundaries of  both tradition and abstraction.

Gary Evans, oil on canvas

Monica Tapp, ink on canvas

Monica Tapp's large photo-based views of woodland are very intriguing. With feathery brushstrokes she recreates every detail of the foliage. The sensation of greenery lit up by sunlight contrasts with the 

achromatic representation of it. Is this a photo or painting? What is a  truthful representation?  The helpful notes on the artist reveal that Monica Tapp is interested in both  perception and memory. Her work is similar to Evans in that it can't easily be categorized. Her lovely canvasses raise questions about what  we know and how we know it. 

This concern with perception  and also our expectations of landscape imagery   prevail in a video by Gwen MacGregor. In a series of photo stills shot in France MacGregor depicts a  grove of leaf-laden birches but she reverses the sequence of budding and leafing- out so that we first see the copse in full-leaf. As the video progresses and the trees revert to bud stage , two nuclear silos are exposed behind the now bare twigs.  MacGregor delicately presents us with a view of nature we might prefer not to acknowledge. 

A series of monochromatic works on paper by Doreen Wittenbols that reference the very Canadian experience of camping in the wilderness also resonated with me. I liked her reference to Tom Thomson, which was brave rather cliched.

Two installations, one by Robert Hengeveld  and another by Janet MacPherson, rounded out this excellent  show.

Robert Hengeveld

Janet MacPherson