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LAURA FINDLAY
VENT
MARCH 2 – MARCH 31, 2018
OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 6-11PM
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Evans Contemporary is pleased to present Vent, an exhibition of new paintings by Toronto artist Laura Findlay.
A mountain is a record of an event that predates those who walk it. It is a record of a moment that was a violent, calamitous eruption or slow, crushing, tectonic force, one that was both destructive and generative. The event and its mark can be understood hazily from a great distance, or closely through accumulated fragmentary pieces.
Vent is an exhibition of new paintings by Laura Findlay, rendering rocks born molten as swipes, dabs, and scrapes across a ground. These actions mimic the geologic forces that interest her, toggling between additive and subtractive modes to form recognizable masses and drawing from forces that shape the landscape in their own image. Mountains make mountains while tectonic plates shift and the mantle cracks. While one body is oozed out of magma tubes, another crumbles to sand. The horizon of mountains grows and bows on a geologic timeline outside human comprehension. This cycle of destruction and creation ignites the artists desire to harness, explore, and reproduce this process through materials that are more within reach.
In her most recent work, Laura Findlay focuses on the relationship between empathy, destruction, and creation through confrontations between naturalism and supernaturalism. She explores the extended empathetic response to a calamitous moment, and the relationship this has in the reception of an artwork. Using additive and destructive gestures, swipes, dabs, digs and scrapes, as a method of communicating the subjective dimensions of her imagery, she engages viewers in the act of creation in response to a moment from history.
LAURA FINDLAY
Laura Findlay is a Toronto based-artist whose practice encompasses painting, photography and sculpture. She holds a BFA from Concordia University in Montreal and completed an MFA in Studio Arts from the University of Guelph in 2014.
Findlay’s work has been exhibited throughout Canada, and has been included in solo exhibition in Toronto at Zalucky Contemporary (2017), and Sea Foam (2016), The Kamloops Art Gallery (2017), Galerie Lilian Rodriguez in Montreal (2015), in Guelph, ON at Boarding House Gallery, (2014) and the Macdonald Stewart Arts Centre (2014), as well as at Brucebo Konstnärshemmet, Sweden (2017).
She has been included in group exhibitions at Lord Ludd, Philadelphia (2016), The Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba in Brandon (2014), Platform Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts, Winnipeg (2014), The National Gallery of Canada, (2013), Zavitz Gallery, in Guelph, ON (2013), and the Vermont Studio Center (2011). Toronto based exhibitions include shows at Georgia Scherman Projects (2017), Xspace Cultural Centre (2016), John B. Aird Gallery (2015), and Olga Korper Gallery (2013). Findlay’s Montreal exhibitions include shows at Projet Pangée (2017), Galerie 427 (2012), FOFA Gallery (2012), and Galerie Jean Brilliant (2010).
Her numerous grants include funding by the Ontario Art Council (2017, 2015), and the Toronto Arts Council (2017, 2015).
Findlay received funding through the Brucebo Fine Art Scholarship (2017), Vermont Studio Center (2011), and numerous scholarships from the University of Guelph, and Concordia University.
She has participated in residencies at the Brucebo Foundation in Gotland, Sweden (2017), The Banff Centre for the Arts (2016), and the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont. (2011).
In 2013, Findlay was a Finalist for the RBC Canadian Painting Competition. Her work can be found in public and private collections across Canada, the United States, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
EVANS CONTEMPORARY
Evans Contemporary is dedicated to the presentation of creative projects by national and international contemporary artists. Located in Peterborough, Ontario, the gallery is situated off the courtyard of a late Victorian building in the heart of the café and arts district. Its mandate is to launch contemporary exhibitions every four to six weeks and offer a unique space for special projects and new endeavours for each exhibiting artist, while allowing artists to present projects that transcend the trends of the commercial visual art market.
Evans Contemporary falls just outside of the entrenched public and private gallery sectors. It is privately owned and operated, and runs as a negative profit exhibition space. Through its generous supporters and patrons, it serves to provide exceptional, contemporary exhibitions to a region underserviced by visual culture. The gallery serves as a rallying point for artists, cultural workers and art lovers of the Kawartha Lakes region. In addition to its physical exhibitions, and openings, Evans Contemporary coordinates online documentation and publications for each exhibition. Operating as an amalgamation of artist-run centre, museum, institute, and private foundation, Evans Contemporary fills a void in the cultural landscape of the region, plays an important role as a leader in the cultural fabric of Peterborough and the Kawartha region, and stands as a signifying site of local culture.
The artists gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council.