Elizabeth McIntosh: A Ball Is For Throwing
Canada is pleased to announce 鈥淎 Ball is For Throwing,鈥� its second solo exhibition with Vancouver-based painter Elizabeth McIntosh. In a new suite of exuberant, large-scale paintings, McIntosh continues her formal exploration of ambiguous and unresolved compositions populated by shapes that flicker in and out of legibility. The central forms in 鈥淐urious Trees,鈥� for example, signify as both flora and fauna, hovering at the edge of interpretability. Despite their enigmatic qualities, the paintings ultimately solicit the viewer鈥檚 pleasure and desire鈥攑rompting us, like the looker in Rich鈥檚 poem, to puzzle, 鈥淚s it red? is it blue? is it violet?鈥�
McIntosh鈥檚 recent paintings are both a departure from and extension of her recent work. Here, instead of drawing on the art historical quotations that have been the foundation of past canvases, McIntosh builds the paintings from fragments of her own watercolors, marker drawings, and digital doodles. Dragging these elements around digitally, she plans her compositions in advance, enlarging and collaging shapes of her own design in layered patterns. In the piece titled 鈥淪appho鈥檚 World,鈥� she magnifies a field of watercolor, painstakingly transcribing its pooling pigment into oil paint.
This body of work includes several pieces whose compositions are defined by a framing device that resembles the pages of an open book. This bipartite shape allows McIntosh to explore her interest in the happenstance relationships that occur when things are combined. It is also a structuring device that disallows conventional compositions, providing the ground for productive tensions and serendipitous juxtapositions. Like McIntosh鈥檚 previous explorations of paintings of/as windows, these book page works investigate the motif of a painting within a painting. In 鈥淚nside a Picture,鈥� for example, a second set of book pages is nestled within the larger frame, creating multiple spaces within one surface. While the book page frame unites multiple pieces in this show, McIntosh鈥檚 paintings are typically quite diverse, not overly concerned with a unifying style. Rather, McIntosh takes each new canvas as an independent project, allowing herself to follow whims and improvisations in the painterly process. The works evince a deep love of the medium, celebrating the pleasure found in color, line, and form.
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Canada is pleased to announce 鈥淎 Ball is For Throwing,鈥� its second solo exhibition with Vancouver-based painter Elizabeth McIntosh. In a new suite of exuberant, large-scale paintings, McIntosh continues her formal exploration of ambiguous and unresolved compositions populated by shapes that flicker in and out of legibility. The central forms in 鈥淐urious Trees,鈥� for example, signify as both flora and fauna, hovering at the edge of interpretability. Despite their enigmatic qualities, the paintings ultimately solicit the viewer鈥檚 pleasure and desire鈥攑rompting us, like the looker in Rich鈥檚 poem, to puzzle, 鈥淚s it red? is it blue? is it violet?鈥�
McIntosh鈥檚 recent paintings are both a departure from and extension of her recent work. Here, instead of drawing on the art historical quotations that have been the foundation of past canvases, McIntosh builds the paintings from fragments of her own watercolors, marker drawings, and digital doodles. Dragging these elements around digitally, she plans her compositions in advance, enlarging and collaging shapes of her own design in layered patterns. In the piece titled 鈥淪appho鈥檚 World,鈥� she magnifies a field of watercolor, painstakingly transcribing its pooling pigment into oil paint.
This body of work includes several pieces whose compositions are defined by a framing device that resembles the pages of an open book. This bipartite shape allows McIntosh to explore her interest in the happenstance relationships that occur when things are combined. It is also a structuring device that disallows conventional compositions, providing the ground for productive tensions and serendipitous juxtapositions. Like McIntosh鈥檚 previous explorations of paintings of/as windows, these book page works investigate the motif of a painting within a painting. In 鈥淚nside a Picture,鈥� for example, a second set of book pages is nestled within the larger frame, creating multiple spaces within one surface. While the book page frame unites multiple pieces in this show, McIntosh鈥檚 paintings are typically quite diverse, not overly concerned with a unifying style. Rather, McIntosh takes each new canvas as an independent project, allowing herself to follow whims and improvisations in the painterly process. The works evince a deep love of the medium, celebrating the pleasure found in color, line, and form.
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Canada is pleased to announce 鈥淎 Ball is For Throwing,鈥� its second solo exhibition with Vancouver-based painter Elizabeth McIntosh.
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