An upcoming McIntosh Gallery exhibit will explore the idea of architectural space – from two quite different angles.
Michelle McGeean: This Will Kill That and Robert Williams: So it Goes, MFA thesis exhibitions presented in collaboration with Western’s Department of Visual Arts, run Aug. 19-Sept. 18
Robert Williams: So it Goes includes paintings, drawings and paper models exploring the limits of describing the mundane domestic spaces of the artist’s apartment. With broad areas of pale, tonally similar colours and a conspicuous absence of pictorial drama, Williams’ detached rendering of everyday life belies his acute observations of light and atmosphere within otherwise unremarkable interiors.
The copious preparatory drawings and models painstakingly made of bits of paper reveal the acute analytic approach underlying Williams’ seemingly uncomplicated paintings.
McGeean also looks at architectural space, but from quite a different angle. The title of her exhibition, This Will Kill That, is taken from Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel Notre Dame de Paris.
With references to an array of architectural histories, including failed utopian housing projects, McGeean’s continuously evolving installation evokes the often-unacknowledged volatility of the built environment in contrast to the stability and persistence of its representation in printed material.
Buildings come and go, but they often exist virtually in residual form through photographs, architectural drawings and descriptive texts.
The McIntosh Gallery is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday, 12 p.m.-4p.m. Saturday and closed Sunday. For information on this or other shows, visit the gallery website, mcintoshgallery.ca.