James Gardner at Le Gallery

by Shannon Bateman

Upon passing by LE Gallery on my way see the group show at Show and Tell Gallery, the unfamiliar form of a hanging artwork caught my eye, and curiosity drew me inside, my mission to Show and Tell cut short. Inside, I found myself fascinated by the presence of each painting in my personal space as a viewer, and the way in which the artworks seemed to reject the confinement of the walls. Not only were these paintings altering my usual experience of viewing artwork, but offered some artistic irony, as paintings of paintings. The five paintings comprise the series Paintings in a Room, and represent Toronto artist James Gardner’s first solo show at LE Gallery.

Gardner is a recent graduate of the University of Guelph, and holds the position of co-director/co-curator for the CS Galleries collective and is the co-founder of the Toronto’s VSVSVS, the collective gallery and studio. His exhibition at LE Gallery explores the relationship between a painting and its support and the space it occupies within a gallery setting. The series is but five paintings, and Gardner’s intent and execution of the concept are direct and impactful. The amorphous wooden structures that serve as Gardner’s interpretation of a support blurs the artwork’s identity between painting and sculpture, and the painted surfaces act as caricatures of paintings displayed in a gallery. Each piece depicts a scene of an abstract painting hanging in a white walled, wooden floored gallery setting, the context in which most art is exhibited today. The work emphasizes the cultural/institutional norms associated with viewing art and the expectations that influence the experience of viewing.
The artist’s intent of bridging the gap between the two physical necessities of a painting, the support and the surface, succeeds boldly and appears almost intrusively into the space of the viewer. The sculptural support presents itself on same level of significance as the surface, an exploration that is refreshing to see. Gardner’s organic rendering of a support allows us to question the standard formula of rectangular wooden support hidden behind the painted surface. The layers of wood that comprise the support are fully visible, constructed in relation to the painted surface, instead of for the painted surface.

The hybridity of the series as painting/sculpture is the first-most striking element of the exhibition, but upon closer examination, the elements of the painted surfaces are also quite impactful. Engaging in this double window of looking into a painting of a painting provokes contemplation of the expectations one enters a gallery with, the context in which we assume we will be viewing artwork. Has the gallery experience become so redundant that one may successfully build a series of paintings around it? Gardner answers this question with his series of paintings, but does so in a fashion free of mockery and in a clear concise manner. The artist takes into account how the physical elements such as the color of the floor, the light, the hue of the viewer’s clothing, and the angle of viewing all affect one’s experience of art. Also, the formal qualities of the painted component to each piece are rendered with such detail to texture, from the “plaster” walls to the “hardwood” floors. Though not key to the conceptual intent of the work, the miniature abstract paintings are strikingly beautiful, providing some color in an otherwise neutral colored series.

The relationships explored in Paintings in a Room are that of an artwork, the space it occupies and the viewer. Gardner approaches these entities in a method that is both direct and complex, providing the basis of an unexpected experience of hybridity. The physical components exist in these works not as structural necessity, but as enhancing elements of a concept. Gardner’s series of paintings succeeds in altering one’s notion of experiencing art, and in turn exists as evidence of a worthy exploration.

Shannon Bateman is a second year Drawing and Painting Major at OCAD University.
Instructor: Pete Smith