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Kohut + Mercier: A Duo Exhibition

July 9 - July 28
Free

Peter Kohut – Artist Statement

My art practice explores the perception of time and its distortions to link the medium of painting to anchors in shared events. By using traditional methods of painting from observation combined with conceptual art-making strategies, my work demonstrates how repetition and process mirror the everyday aspects of our lives. I have found that these explorations provide a forum to celebrate and mourn the passing of the invisible flow of time. The loss of things left unseen and unsaid or the daily accumulation of small victories or insights often ignored or disregarded. A daily practice of painting and a strategy of repetition is key to my work because it allows for a frank recording of uneventful events which reveals the conundrum of existence hidden within. It begs the question: does it matter what we do? How do you spend your time? How do we make meaning? The grounding of the work in the day-to-day aspects of life presents an opportunity to create connections based on the unspectacular and the uneventful, aesthetic experience found in the everyday. Through exploring the invisible and unacknowledged aspects of the everyday, its power and importance are revealed.
Peter Kohut – Biography

Peter Kohut was born and raised in Winnipeg, moved to the West Coast (Victoria) to work as a graphic designer for 15 years, and then moved to Ottawa to study for his MFA (completed 2021). His project is an exploration of repetition, process, and time as a way of linking the medium of painting to anchors in shared events. He has exhibited and participated in group shows in Victoria, Vancouver, and Ottawa. His work is part of the collections of the City of Ottawa and University of Ottawa. He is currently living and working in Ottawa, Ontario.

Geneviève Mercier – Démarche

WHEN IT’S BLUE

After four years without a solo exhibition, Geneviève-Audrey Mercier presents When It’s Blue, a new series of paintings that continues its research around the creative process, intuition and inner landscapes.

Inspired by the movements of the sky, clouds and atmospheric phenomena, these works explore a territory where everything is in transformation. Between fog, light, breathing and immensity, the landscapes become the reflection of states of passage, of those suspended moments when something is emerging without its shape being completely revealed yet.

Through intuitive practice, the artist is less interested in the final image than in what happens during the act of painting. Each canvas testifies to a dialogue between gesture, observation and the unknown, leaving room for impermanence, vulnerability and freedom of interpretation.

When It’s Blue is an invitation to slow down, observe and inhabit these floating spaces that, like clouds, are always in motion.

There is a moment, in every painting, when I no longer know where it goes. This is perhaps the most uncomfortable moment of my work, but also the most essential. The landmarks disappear. Intentions are fading away. Something is trying to appear, without me being able to name it yet.

Details

Organizer

  • Galerie St-Laurent + Hill
  • Phone (613) 789-7145
  • Email info@galeriestlaurentplushill.com
  • View Organizer Website

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